#and being like Everyone Else Was A Functional Person After Her Death okay person who had a negative relationship with the deceased

[trans-xianxian]

every time I think my brother has grown the fuck up and become a decent person he says some stupid shit again

[getlancered]

Okay guys whos ready who is locked in for one of 3 ace attorney turnabout bigtop rewrite ideas. if u guys are hyped for this i will drop the rewrite 7 years in the past where diego is the defense lawyer 🔥 OK LOCK IN

BULLET POINTS FOR LAZY PEOPLE AT THE BOTTOM

i wrote a lot. read it if you love me. also no read more because i hate you read it

rudinn’s painfully detailed rewrite of ace attorney JFA case 3 turnabout bigtop

so. this may be a little all over the place?! because ive never put it in coherent order i just spontaneously get new ideas and add onto it. maybe i should actually tell u guys about the entire rewrite of the original circus tragedy! yes that sounds like a good idea.

june-ish, 2017

it’s supposed to be like 6 months prior to the murder right

i made the idea of failed equipment... essentially russell decides to teach regina how the equipment is hooked up and taken down so she can do it herself when she ideally runs the circus one day. and before a very rushed show where everything is out of order regina decides to be helpful and hook the net up herself! she does it improperly but there isn’t really time to do anything about it befire the show starts. russell insists acro cant perform without a whole functioning net but he trusts his skills and theyve never actually had to put it to use becuase acro and bat are just that talented!

acro, mid performance, many feet in the air misses a catch. instead of falling to his death bat essentially dives down to act like his net and break his fall. they hit the ground, bat dies on impact, acro is permanently paralyzed.

regina doesnt ever see whats happening because ben shields her and himself from watching the fall, which leaves the crowd and moe to watch the death happen in very real time. he never recovers, the incident marks him with CPTSD and he will shut down at any mention of the accident.

☆

after moe breaks down on stage, the berry big circus holds a final performance before a long overdue break to give everyone time to process.

when they resumes performance, russell decides to hire max galactica as the brand new star of the show! he takes a liking to the anxious and unassuming benjamin woodman and is extremely curious about the person he is behind the persona of trilo. being the first person in the circus to take a liking to him as a person and not the crutch to his crippling anxiety, trilo quist, they quickly grow close over the 6 months following.

december 26th, 2017

russell berry is traveling solo for a networking event, and is extremely nervous about leaving the circus in moe’s hands. moe is extremely clumsy and immature. he’s not at all confident in moe’s ability to fire a gun (you know, in the canon game where he shoots a lion? i’m keeping that.) this fear is reinforced during a game of darts between the two of them, where moe rips a hole in the circus tent in an attempt at reassuring russell of his impeccable aim.

russell decides to teach his dear friend how to fire a handgun. and because russell has never fired while wearing gloves, he’s hesitant to let moe try it, so they practice without gloves on. (because how else would the defendant’s fingerprints be on the gun, silly?)

a few hours later…

6 months after his brother’s violent death and acro’s permanent disability by his own misjudgement, he can’t live with himself. he takes russell’s gun from his office up to his room, places a suicide note on his bed, and—

regina berry walks in.

there’s nothing she can do but ask why. having been spared the details and the moment of the death thanks to ben, she doesn’t understand. so acro explains it to her. they have a very heartfelt conversation clearing up a lot of resentment, and they begin their steps together to mending their relationship and acro’s mental health. regina takes his suicide note from his room because he doesn’t need it. she, ultimately, decides to keep it as the first harsh reality she’s had to face and as a milestone for acro getting better.

december 27th, 2017.

uh oh.

by now, the entire circus tent is well aware of maximillian galactica and his anger issues. it’s smart to let him win any disagreement out of fear of it turning into a heated argument.

russell berry laments to moe about this in his office, shortly before the murder. he’s nervous about leaving the circus when he tends to be the mediatior. (mostly between moe and max.) moe tells him, ever so gracefully, that it is russell’s circus and he should fucking act like it, and to please put max in his goddamn place already. aka, talk to him about it. russell, who is notoriously bad at confrontation, decides to go and finally have a long overdue chat with max, who is still in the dinner hall. so he leaves moe in his office to go and do just that. (chronologically, this translates to this scene, but like. with moe instead of max. i havent gotten around to redrawing it...)

meanwhile…

everybody in the circus treats acro and his disability like a forbidden topic, and max is sick of it! all he has for some damn context around here is a picture of the scene in action, which is supposedly in a tabloid somewhere. he’s not satisfied with this, so he decides to go straight to the source and demand that someone finally tell him what the hell happened to this shitshow of a circus.

acro, of course, attempts to calmly turn him down, but max refuses to take no for an answer. when acro gets defensive, their argument turns heated.

you all know this scene well as ben and max’s argument. however, instead, max breaks the bottle over acro’s head. he immediately goes limp, blood spilling down his split forehead a-la turnabout trump.

max fucking panics. he takes his obnoxious hat and uses it to cover acro’s wound, and then wheels the dead man straight to benjamin woodman in absolute hysterics over what to do.

ben proposes the idea of faking acro’s suicide, citing that he was already suicidal and that way no one goes to jail! max has no reason to deny it. so ben tells max to retrieve russell’s gun, a pen, and a piece of paper while ben takes acro’s body upstairs to his room.

at the same time max is heading out to retrieve the items, russell has finally gotten around to speaking to max after procrastinating with a few chores regarding regina’s animals. he walks into the dining hall to see a small pool of blood on the ground, a broken glass bottle, and no max.

what’s it like to be a murderer?

well, when you’re max galactica and moe is asleep at the desk in russell’s office? pretty easy after a quick heart attack. there’s papers on top of russell’s desk, though. looks like someone’s been snooping. he takes the items he needs, remaining undetected, and then meets ben in acro’s room.

ben creates the forged note while max removes acro’s headpiece and drapes his hair in a way that conceals the wound. he then attempts to work up the courage to shoot acro in the temple with russell’s gun. after some more hysterics from max trying to hold a gun, ben decides to do it on his own. while wearing max’s gloves of course, he’s not stupid.

he might actually be stupid though, because he later ends up leaving his beloved trilo quist behind. oops! ben and max carefully lay acro on the bed and leave their victimless crime behind. it’s better this way, isn’t it? now nobody has to be arrested.

not unless your name is moe and your life sucks!

upon waking up hours later, still very russell-less, moe decides to check in on acro because it seems long overdue given how late into the night it’s gotten. he opens the door to see acro lying dead in his bed, and he breaks.

he holds acro close for a long long time. he just holds acro and cries. when he’s too tired to cry anymore, he sits on the floor at the foot of acro’s bed, head to his knees in a state of shock. and he remains that way even when russell finds the two of them, even when russell attempts to shake him out of shock. even as police cars pull up and whisk him away from the scene of the crime.

at first, nothing is out of the ordinary. acro died by suicide, he left the note. regina is sobbing, insisting that he would never, but as a young girl who has never had to deal with grief to such a degree before, her cries aren’t taken to heart.

not until they discover the real cause of death, and a moe’s fingerprints on the gun.

gumshoe takes moe in handcuffs, attempting to calm the panicking clown under the guise of “asking a few questions.” when he lets the fingerprints slip, moe calls to russell to tell them what’s actually going on and to clear up the horrible misunderstanding!

russell does not. he stares in somewhat of a trance at the ordeal unfolding in-front of him. being a man who cannot act without a prior plan of what exactly to do, he isnt sure what to say to make sure moe isn’t incriminated further. so he says nothing, and moe is taken to the detention center.

umm the rest of this is. a little vague? i havent worked out the trials or investigation sequences yet.

i do plan for this little rewrite of mine to, one day, be a playable thing! i am so passionate about this case that i want people to see it through a new light and love it like i do.

i will give you all the unstructured rundown of my ideas further, including my evidence list, some fun little dialogue snippets, potential sprites i’d be drawing, and a couple of random ideas for what could happen during the playable bit of the game.

evidence list!

basically just everything phoenix will find/have on him throughout the case. sorted by room and in order of discovery. sort of. subject to change…

misc/given:

Attorney’s Badge - It’s my all-important badge. It shows that I am a defense attorney.

Maya’s Magatama - Slightly translucent. It radiates softly with a mysterious light.

Crime Photo - A picture of the crime scene. (recieved from detective gumshoe)

Moe’s Gloves - They’re covered in blood. Supposedly, because he was holding the body. (recieved from moe)

Incident Photo - A picture of Acro mid-air. (recieved from max)

Newspaper Clipping 1 - Acrobat Sean Dingling falls to his death. (recieved from russell)

Acro’s Autopsy Report - Time of death: 8:30 PM. Cause: Sharp force trauma to the forehead. (presented by detective gumshoe)

Pistol - Belongs to Russell. Two shots fired. Bears Acro’s and Moe’s fingerprints. (presented by detective gumshoe)

Broken Glass Bottle - The murder weapon. Found in the cafeteria trashcan covered in blood. (presented by franziska)

Newspaper Clipping 2 - Berry Big Circus closing it’s doors for the foreseeable future to watch the health of their performers. (presented by franziska)

ringmaster’s room:

Max G. Promo Poster - Covered in sparkles. His stage makeup is certainly flashy.

The Flying Dingling-Berries Promo Poster - It’s color is faded from years in the spotlight.

Letter of Resignation - An unsigned letter detailing someone’s desire to move on to better employment opportunities.

big top:

Torn Circus Tent - A large hole torn in the main tent of the Big Top. Not far below a hanging dart board.

Acrobat’s Net - A tightly-strung net for the acrobat’s performance.

cafeteria:

Bloody Footprints - Despite having seemingly no origin, a short trail of footprints lead from the cafeteria to the Ringmaster’s Room.

moe’s room:

Sentimental Photo - A framed photo of a young Acro and Bat with Moe wrapping his arms around them.

regina’s room:

Suicide Note 2 - Hidden in Regina’s drawer. Acro will never be able to put the accident behind him, but he doesn’t want to keep the circus in the past with him.

acro’s room:

Suicide Note 1 - Left on Acro’s nightstand. Acro can’t live with himself knowing Bat died because of him.

Trilo Quist - A ventriloquist's puppet. An operatic tenor who doubles as Ben's sidekick.

Headband - A golden headband with red gems. There’s traces of blood on it.

ben’s room:

Silk Hat - Made-to-order fedora that is a symbol of Max's fabulousness. There’s blood on the inside of the hat.

White Gloves - Pristine white gloves with a bit of sparkle. Also, traces of gunpowder.

WHEW. Done

some things i cooked up regarding evidence pieces…

Incident Photo - A picture of Acro mid-air. (recieved from max)

when interrogating max and presenting the acrobat’s promo poster to him, you get this line of dialogue.

Max: Oh, hmm…They were fabulous, I’ve heard. And believe me, I’ve heard very little. They’re something of a touchy subject.

Max: When I asked why, Ben gave me this photo and told me to never bring it up again.

Max: Apparently it was rather the scandal! They had to close temporarily until I came along, of course~

max gives you the incident photo, which you then show to the members of the circus. phoenix learns from regina and russell that, aside from acro, moe took the incident the hardest. russell also gives you the first newspaper clipping.

when you show this photo to moe in the detention center, he freezes up and puts up psyche-locks. i haven’t done much with those yet, though.

The Flying Dingling-Berries Promo Poster - It’s color is faded from years in the spotlight.

when you show this to moe, he absolutely loses it laughing. that’s it. just a stupid bit about how absolutely awful their name is. he cracks the expected jokes.

Newspaper Clipping 2 - Berry Big Circus closing it’s doors for the foreseeable future to watch the health of their performers. (presented by franziska)

franziska, at some point in the trial while moe is on the stand, attempts to make a case against him and how he’s mentally unstable using the clipping being about his breakdown on the stage. she also brings up his severe depression he experienced for some time after the accident, his unnatural behavior upon finding the body/his response to fear, and his tendency to severely dissasociate any time the accident is brought up.

Letter of Resignation - An unsigned letter detailing someone’s desire to move on to better employment opportunities.

various reaction dialogue snippets incoming

Moe: Me? Quit? HAHAH! Yeah right, Wright! I think Russ would feed me to the lions if I even tried. Ha. Haha…

Moe: …I’ve got no reason to, anyhow. They’re like my family.

Moe: Give it to Max. I’ve always hoped its his. The whole circus would be better off if an attitude like his would magically disappear!

——

Max: Oh, darling, this circus wouldn’t run the same without me! I bring a fabulous sparkle that’s impossible to replace~

Max: Not to mention a fabulously packed audience. I make the circus all of it’s money, sweetie.

Max: Not a soul on this earth could resist the talent that is Maximilian Galactica!

Max: Hmm…Don’t let word slip, now, but Ben might know a thing or two. He’s been having a few…struggles, lately.

——

Trilo: Max and his big mouth…! He’s a huge gossip! Him and his fancy agency…

Trilo: Those flamboyant douchebags are used to spilling all sort of secrets, I tell ya!

Ben: W-What—um, Trilo is try—trying to say—

Trilo: Spit it out! Ugh. It’s not his, and it sure ain’t mine! Ben’s a quitter, but not me, no siree.

Trilo: I hate these looney-tunes bunch of jokes, but the entertainment industry is all about CONNECTIONS! Max is like a goldmine! No way I’m leaving now.

Trilo: Ben and this Berry-Big-Joke are stuck with me!

Trilo: It’s Acro’s. Gotta be. I thought he was gonna kill himself, which…Oops! Awkward. But he must’ve—

Ben: Tr-Trilo…! Goodness! Don’t speak ill of th—the…of the…

Trilo: Dead?! It’s not “speaking ill” if it’s just the facts! Are you trying to silence me?! Your own partner?!

Ben: …

Trilo: Thought so.

Trilo: Yeah, not sure what happened! He probably tried to quit and then gave up and killed himself or something. Who knows!

Ben: M-my gosh…

it’s bens btw. he’s a liar.

brief playable section outlined? i dont have a lot of specifics…

opens with a playable bit from the POV of moe waking up in the ringmaster's room. he walks around the berry big circus in a bit of a daze. when he leaves to see a dark sky, he comments on how late it is and that he should probably go check on acro. you find the body and get a bit of an emotion snippet before it fades to black.

maya calls phoenix and tells him to look at the TV, apparently there's been a death at the berry big circus that they went to see the day prior and they should check it out.

moe isn't visible in the detention center. that is, until maya presses her face to the glass and sees moe sitting on the floor, pouting. he tells phoenix and maya, who he mistakes for max galactica paparazzi, to go away. you show him your attorney's badge and get a dialogue bit about him being abandoned by russell, and also not believing this is genuinely a murder and just a suicide. when you get through to him that he is under arrest for murder, he essentially begs phoenix to represent him. like usual, maya guilt trips him into it.

russell is in the bigtop circus tent. you question him about the hole, and he tells you about moe's terrible aim. you bring up a dialogue bit about "abandoning moe" and he tells you about the arrest. you can show him the acrobat/max promo posters after picking them up and get a bit about that too.

you chase ben around the circus for a bit before finding regina in the lodging house and learning that he doesn't talk to anyone unless he has trilo. you also talk to regina about the murder, she reinforces that this can’t be a suicide because acro would never do anything like this. not after all they talked about.

talk to gumshoe in acros room, discuss what he knows about the case and get respective evidence pieces from gumshoe. and also get trilo.

give trilo to ben, talk to him about the circus. also, talk about the supposed new star of the circus and how great he is. after showing max’s promo poster.

break into moe’s room. find his very sweet photo of acro and bat

trial one, gumshoe first as per usual. trial 2-1, brief testimony from moe about his alibi. cross examine regina about her conversation with acro. then, cross examine her about the gunshot she heard and the time she heard it. trial 2-2, cross examine russell about his alibi. prove that he isnt really telling the court everything he knows.

second investigative period, this is where it gets way less structured LOLOL. meet max formally for the first time, get the incident picture from him. investigate more about the incident.

show the picture to regina, she gives you testimony about the accident and moe. show the picture to russell, he gives you the newspaper clipping. show the picture to ben, he tells you about him giving it to max.

you can show moe’s sentimental picture to ben and get a bitter little dialogue bit! nothing fun, yet.

show the letter of resignation around. get the dialogue pieces i showed earlier. unlock some psyche locks from ben to find out that its his

break into reginas room. find acro’s not forged very real suicide note

break into bens room. find everything incriminating max galactica

show moe the newspaper clippings and unlock some psyche locks and he cries to you for a very very long time about the accident

more psyche locks from russell probably. argument between max and acro revealed and the rest of the shit he’s been hiding. man i dont know

trial 4-1, cross examine moe and his testimony some more. franziska calls him crazy for a while. put him to the side while you get a very brief max galactica testimony, then some stuff from ben. trial 4-2 ben openly breaks down on the stand about feeling unloved and left out by the circus and that max is the only person who gives a shit. cross examine max and find out about the argument with acro. max galactica murder breakdown. thats it? we win? max goes to jail?

HOLD IT BITCH. the stupid clown is not done. he starts begging phoenix not to ruin their circus, that max can’t be a murderer because he’s the star and acro must have killed himself. phoenix gives moe acro’s real suicide note and then he just cries on the stand for a while.

comfort moe some more outside of the courtroom, convince him that acro doesn’t hate him forever and that the circus will be okay.

the end 🔥

BULLET POINTS FOR LAZY PEOPLE HERE‼️

regina fucks up the net for the acrobat performance. no one does shit about it. acro and bat fall and die. onlt bat dies though actually

moe is FUCKED UP over it. breaks down on stage and the circus shuts down PTSD PARTAY

enter gayboy stage left he flirts with ben like no freakin tomorrow dude

russell has to leave for work because plot purposes and moe is fucking stupid. tears a hole in the tent trying to prove to russell that hes not fucking stupid

so russell teaches moe how to fire a gun incase he needs to Fire A Gun while russell is gone. gloves off duh silly his fingerprints gotta be on there somehow!

yeah when theyre done with that gun acro tries to KILL HIS FUCKIN SELF

regina finds him and cries. they makesies upsies and become best friends. so regina takes his suicide note

MAX GALACTIA IS A FUCKING CUNT. — russell berry to moe in his room. moe tells him to Man the fuck up snd talk to him

moe falls asleep when russell leaves lol

while they talk about this shit max galactica proceeds to be a fucking cunt by killing acro with a glass bottle because acro didnt wanna tell him about his tragic dead brother

max puts his hat on acro’s head to hide the gaping fucking wound. goes to his forbidden gay lover to ask what to do with a dead body?! the Normal Logical Thing of course; stage a suicide

russell procrastinated btw so when he goes to find max he finds blood instead

max finds stuff to forge a suicide note, and because he’s too much of a pussy to shoot acro himself ben does it for him. like a good boyfriend

moe wakes up like 5 hours later after a terrible nap and stumbles around the circus until he finds a Body

holds acro instead of calling the cops. sits on the floor instead of calling the cops

when russell finds them in the morning and calls the cops they arrest moe after like 2 seconds of realizing its not a suicide and this dumb bitchs fingerprints are on the gun

Russell doesnt do shit btw. lets it happen. like the loser he is.

im not bullet pointing the playable stuff this shit took fucking forever

THATS MY ABSOLUTELY DERANGED BIGTOP RANT. thanks for reading if you love me. PLEASE READ THIS AND ENJOY THIS CASE AS MUCH AS ME

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Heyyyy I just wanted to tell you how much I love your blog! I actually never realised how much there is to know about Rohan until I stumbled across your blog and it's super interesting! (I'll most likely always be an elf-girl, but you never know and it never hurts to know more about other parts of Tolkien's stories)

So I wanted to ask you something: since I'm still very new to this part of the fandom but I'm very interested in it, I was wondering if you could give me a general overview of the most important people from Rohan and their function/jobs, maybe also your headcanons about them, because I'm honestly still a bit lost and overwhelmed by all the new names that I've never really noticed before. (Fun fact btw,😅 Éowyn was actually always one of my absolute favourite characters, so its funny to me how I never dived into the Rohan side of the fandom before)

And if you don't want to do that, that's okay too, just let me compliment your blog, because it's wonderful!

Aw, thanks!!! ♥️ Like you, I also enjoy learning more about characters from outside of my primary interest area, so I hope you find this helpful! I love your ask, but it could be a VERY long response and I fear that you’ll still find it to be kind of an overwhelming list of names. So I’m gonna limit it by focusing on the canonical characters that are in that sweet spot between “most people know who this is already” (e.g., Éowyn, Éomer, Théoden and Gríma) and “this is a person who is more or less just a name” (e.g., Herubrand or Horn). So I’ll give you a little canonical Who’s Who of the rest of them, with links for the ones where I’ve got HCs if there are any you’re particularly interested in.

Also, you inspired me to finally write out my HC for Grimbold, the Rohirrim who was allergic to horses, which I’ll post separately in a day or two, so thank you for that! 🐎

So, ready? *cracks knuckles* Here we go with the Who’s Who below the cut:

Royal Family:

Théoden’s father was Thengel, who had mixed feelings about Rohan and lived a long time in Gondor, where he met his wife Morwen.

Théoden had 4 sisters, but we only know about the youngest, Théodwyn, who was Éomer/Éowyn’s mom and died of sickness soon after her husband Éomund was killed in a poorly planned orc hunt.

Théoden’s wife was Elfhild, who died giving birth to their son, Théodred. He never remarried.

Théodred was killed by Saruman’s forces and had no wife or child, so his beloved cousin Éomer became heir in his stead.

Non-Royal Notables of Edoras, the Capital City:

Háma was the captain of the king’s guard and died at Helm’s Deep after aiding in the healing of Théoden by breaking some rules on Gandalf’s behalf. (I would die for Háma.)

Elfhelm was acting as the Marshal (the top military office) of Edoras at the time of LOTR and was involved in ALL KINDS of stuff but is most notable for not ratting out Éowyn when he found that she was riding in his éored (unit) to the war in Gondor.

There’s a whole gaggle of members of the king’s éored, most of whom die in Gondor with no backstory or detail. No one else would likely put them on this list, but they’re dear to me (and frequently discussed on my blog) so we’re including Guthláf, Théoden’s banner bearer, and Wídfara, who rode with the king’s company and scouted conditions at Minas Tirith.

Notables of the West-mark:

Erkenbrand was in charge of Helm’s Deep at the time of the war and helped save the day there before being left to rule Rohan while everyone else went to war in Gondor.

Gamling served under Erkenbrand and was an elderly man who was still a dope warrior and fought alongside his own grandson at Helm's Deep!

Grimbold was a military captain who, with Elfhelm, saw Théodred’s death and fought to keep orcs from taking his body before going to war in Gondor. Unlike Elfhelm, Grimbold died.

Dúnhere was Erkenbrand's nephew and served under Grimbold. He organized the muster of the Rohirrim to go to Gondor, where he also died.

Notables of the East-mark:

Éothain is really the only one here. He was a soldier under Éomer, and he was very suspicious of both outsiders and rule breakers.

Bonus Notable Ancestors of pre-LOTR Times:

Eorl was the founder and first king of Rohan who sealed the oath of friendship between his people and Gondor and tamed the first of the mearas (the ancestors of Shadowfax!).

Helm Hammerhand was king during the war/famine of the Long Winter. He’s famous for killing a dude with 1 punch and scaring the bejeezus out of enemies by stalking them in the night.

Freca was a lord of mixed Rohan/Dunland ancestry whom Helm punched to death b/c Helm was a hothead who felt threatened by Freca’s influence. Freca’s family later led an army against Rohan b/c they were pissed!

Whew! That’s not everyone, but I think it’s everyone whose name you’d be likely to come across outside of the big 4 (Théoden, Éomer, Éowyn and Gríma). It’s really striking when you write it all out and realize that you have to end so many with “but he/she died”! But the fact that they’re a little tragic and made so many sacrifices is a big part of why I love them.

I hope this was in ANY way helpful, even if it’s just a little cheat sheet that you consult when needed!

[misstrashchan]

"This must be really hard on her too"

That line... has been forever stuck on a loop in my head ever since I first heard it. That it's the last thing they say, that they take away about Ruby as a person in that scene. Especially while watching V9, and just how much everything has been weighing down on Ruby, and her tendency to repress her negative emotions and refuse to take time to let herself feel them and reflect is now being unpacked and examined much closer as the Ever After functions in such a way that she will literally get nowhere unless she looks inside herself, this scene has again been swimming to the surface of my mind, and it's just something I feel like revisiting.

(also it's rg white day today so, I'm legally allowed to be insufferable about Them, though this is in part relevant to V9 in regards to Ruby)

Most other people who have met and know Ruby just kind of accept that she is who she is, or very quickly come to. She's The Hero. The Leader. The Spark Of Hope Everyone is Inspired By. We rarely see her talk about her personal feelings and motivations, and it's never really called into question besides being touched upon briefly in her first meeting with Ozpin and Blake in the first volume about why she wants to be a huntress:

Ozpin: And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?

Ruby: Well... I want to be a Huntress.

Ozpin: You want to slay monsters?

Ruby: Yeah! I only have two more years of training left at Signal! And then I'm going to apply to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it!

(1x01)

Ruby: I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress!

Blake: And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?

Ruby: Well, I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books... Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!

Blake: That's... very ambitious for a child. Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale.

Ruby: Well, that's why we're here! To make it better.

(1x03)

...With further insight from Yang at times:

Yang: I'm not like Ruby, she's always wanted to be a Huntress. It's like she said, ever since she was a kid, she'd dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day, and never asking for anything else in return.

(2x10)

But rarely do we see Ruby open up about herself as an individual and her struggles, and even rarer still is the occasion someone prompts her too.

And so it's always stuck out to me that in 5x05 she gets asked the questions that... no one else has really asked her before.

"How do you handle all of this?"

"How can you be so confident?"

"How are you okay with any of this?"

In the Dojo scene (5x05) when we see Oscar pick up on Ruby trying to hide how sad she is (after being reminded of Penny's death) while trying to encourage Oscar, we see her recompose herself, interrupt Oscar when he starts to ask a question after noticing her sullen expression, and then she tries to leave, excusing herself awkwardly.

"Well, see you upstairs"

(very subtle Ruby) but before she can do so, Oscar finds he has to ask:

"How do you handle all of this?"

A question she initially doesn't... actually answer. She very deliberately avoids talking about herself, her own feelings, and how she's been handling all this. Instead she focuses on reassuring Oscar at first, saying what she thinks will make him feel better after hearing him elaborate, confiding in her about how afraid and overwhelmed he is by his current situation.

"I'm... scared. I'm more scared than I've ever been in my life, than I ever thought was possible. I always knew that I wanted to be more than a farmhand, but this?"

"...Who would ask for this?"

Oscar didn't really have a choice in being pulled into the war with Salem and becoming a huntsman, he was reluctantly pulled into it by Ozpin. WBY and JNR decide to join the fight because they're inspired by Ruby and following her as a leader.

...So why does Ruby willingly ask and choose to be a huntress? Why did she freely leave home? Why would she choose to risk her life in this fight against Salem and to take on the responsibility of saving the world? (It certainly doesn't feel like a coincidence that these questions are being revisited in one way or another in V9)

Ruby gives him a very generalised answer in response to his question at first that talks about everyone as a group, and leaves out talking about herself as an individual specifically:

"We all went to Beacon because we wanted to help people"

"None of us chose this either"

"We just have to press on"

And you can see Oscar's expression growing more frustrated as he's facing away from Ruby, because that's not an answer to the question he actually asked. Because he asked about how Ruby as an individual is handling all of this. Ruby genuinely wants to reassure Oscar, but to him it comes across as insincere, like she's putting up a facade, especially since he saw only a moment ago that she was on the verge of tears and clearly upset about something, so he knows she's not being honest about how she's feeling when Oscar asks her how she's handling all of this.

And so he snaps and pushes back:

"How can you be so confident? People have tried to kill you, the world's about to go to war all over again, how are you okay with any of this?!"

(*glances at the v8 finale and v9* boi howdy those words sure do have a different weight to them now huh)

And while realising he may have been too harsh or blunt and later apologizes, it actually does succeed in getting Ruby to reflect a little and confide in him what she'd been through at the FoB and her losing Pyrrha and Penny, her own doubts and fears about the fight with Salem, and how it had shaped her resolve moving forward.

"When Beacon fell, I lost two of my friends: Penny Polendina and Pyrrha Nikos. I didn't know them for very long, but that doesn't change the fact that they were two of the most kind-hearted people I have ever met. But that didn't save them. Pyrrha thought that if there was even the smallest chance of helping someone, then it was a chance worth taking. And because of that, she died fighting a battle she knew she couldn't win. And Penny... was killed... just to make a statement."

"I am scared! But not just for me. What happened at Beacon shows that Salem doesn't care if you're standing against her or not. She'll kill anybody. And that, scares me most of all. Pyrrha... Penny... I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. That I didn't think about them everyday since I lost them. That I didn't wish I had spent more time with them. If it had been me instead, I know they would have kept fighting too. No matter how dangerous it was. So that's what I choose to do. To keep moving forward."

And again, what stands out to me is that the last thing Oscar takes away from his conversation with Ruby in the Dojo isn't... how inspiring she is or his admiration and respect for her (though he very clearly has that too, "she must've been one of the best huntresses at beacon!"). The last thing he says in this scene, the last thing he takes away is instead this:

"This must be really hard on her too."

The more time that passes through the series and seeing Ruby slowly put under more and more pressure, and stretching herself thinner over time, (like her semblance evolves so she can break herself down to carry others in V8, and in V9 her friends have been shrunk down and she is the one responsible for carrying her team on her shoulders) to help others and save everyone and yet still fail and lose those close to her, and having to just keep trying, keep moving forward no matter what, never stopping or slowing down even if there is no clear end she can see is heartbreaking and exhausting.

And it just makes rewatching the Dojo scene hit even harder. Because yes Oscar! It really is hard on her too! And it was so damn satisfying to have someone see and acknowledge that as well as admiring her and being inspired by her. Being moved by both her strength of character AND her vulnerability. And so it's noteworthy that Oscar is the one who does this, and who pushed her to open up, even just a little, about her grief over the FoB and fears about the fight with Salem.

Especially considering the visual framing of Ruby opening up to Oscar about what she's been through while standing in an open door frame exposed to the outside cementing that as the purpose of the scene: (she is literally opening up to him)

And the fact that Oscar has a kind of a different response from when we've usually seen Ruby comfort, reassure and inspire someone before. Usually it causes them to reflect on themselves and their own struggles, (like with Blake, Jaune, Penny and Qrow) not also on hers as well.

Even with those she has a mutual sense of understanding and solidarity with, like Blake (because of their ideals) and Jaune (because of both of them sharing the responsibility of being leaders) the way they comfort and uplift her in turn when they see her doubting herself is often a double edged sword.

Jaune: You didn't drag us out here. You gave us the courage to follow you.

(4x10)

Blake: I know you don't always know what to do, but that's never stopped you from doing something. I've always looked up to you Ruby.

(8x08)

Yang and Qrow also do this, and it comes with the additional punch of comparing Ruby to Summer as an ideal she strives to be:

Yang: Mom took a risk the day she left, and I don’t think. I don’t think it went the way she wanted it to. But she’s still my hero.

(8x11)

(Summer was Yang's hero, and now Ruby is too, so she has to try to live up to that)

Ruby: This says I'm a Huntress now. But I don't feel like I know much more than I did at Beacon.

Qrow: That feeling never goes away. Your mom, Summer, would be proud of you.

Ruby: What do you think she would've done if she learned the truth about Salem? That she can't be destroyed.

Qrow: Pressed on, I think. Like you. She was always the best of us.

(7x04)

(if Summer would've pressed on, then Ruby has to keep doing that too. If she was the best, then Ruby has to be the best.)

Because, and I want to make this clear, I think Ruby appreciates and is greatful for how much they believe in her and look up to her, and it absolutely does inspire her to keep moving forward, to stand up and fight even when she's doubting herself. But it also... unintentionally places more pressure on her to try and live up to those expectations, and it deprives her of an equal, of someone to relate to and help share her burden instead of upholding her on a pedestal and having unwavering faith in her as the smaller soul everyone looks to. To bottle up her negative feelings because well, everyone believes in her as this optimistic leader who is this endless source of hope and inspiration to everyone around her, and everyone needs her to Keep Being That, and that's more important, right? She can't let them down, right?

"It's up to you to make things better, isn't it? Everything all depends on you! Your sister needs you, your friends need you. The whole world needs you to keep fighting forever and ever against an invincible monster that took your mother!"

(9x04)

Ironically, this (in part) comes back to the person who reinforced this flawed mentality in Ruby in the first place. Ozpin.

"But if you aren't always performing at your best, what reason do you give others to follow you?"

(1x10)

This was genuinely good advice for Ruby's situation at the time in V1 after her conflict with Weiss, to take her role as leader more seriously, and well intentioned I'm sure. But in the long run? Ruby has been basing her self worth on how much she can give or do for others. On being that perfect leader.

Ruby feels like she constantly needs to be a pillar of strength and support for everyone around her as a the ever-cheerful and inspiring leader, that she has to prioritize them over herself, and if she lets herself admit how much she's hurting or how scared she is, she'd be afraid of those around her losing faith. What reason would they have to follow her if she failed them like that? Thus as a result, she struggles allowing herself to open up about her own feelings and to rely on others for emotional support. And as we've starting seeing recently, bottles it up until she reaches breaking point.

Another element to consider, and there might be an earlier or more obvious indication of this, but I started to notice it in V2 when she's visibly the most depressed and worried about Blake's behaviour as she's spiralling and overworking herself, saying the party is pointless if they can't get Blake to go.

"Date or no date, none of this will matter if we can't get Blake to go."

(2x05)

Yang and Weiss are also both concerned for Blake's wellbeing, but they're also excited about the dance for themselves, (Yang talking about what dress she's going to wear, Weiss about her date, what decorations they should have, etc.) which we see when they're planning the party. For Ruby, the only point of the dance is to cheer Blake up, to get her to relax.

"What's the point? Who cares about the dance if Blake isn't going?"

(2x06)

But then Yang convinces Blake she needs to take time for herself and relax, and when Blake shows up at the party, afterwards Ruby is... then completely stumped when she no longer has someone to worry over, and ironically struggles to relax or enjoy herself at the party like everyone else.

Blake neglected her physical needs to push herself, while Ruby appears to neglect her own emotional needs. She focuses on other people's problems and struggles, concerns herself with their wellbeing and happiness, and we don't really see her think about her own. It's admirable how much she's dedicated to being a huntress, but unlike the rest of her team, she doesn't really have anything outside of that that she wants for herself. Her entire sense of self completely revolves around being a huntress.

Ozpin: Well, you can't spend your whole life on the battlefield, even if you may want to.

Ruby: (crossing her arms, looking annoyed) Yeah, that lesson's been floating around a lot lately.

Ozpin: (staring out at the dancing couples) If you think about it, fighting and dancing aren't so different. Two partners interlocked, although one wrong move on the ballroom merely leads to a swollen foot.

(2x07)

This is said while looking out on the dancing couples and comparing dancing to fighting, aka, romantic foreshadowing, which I've talked about in more detail here

(also hey thanks Oz for giving Ruby some good advice to follow the piece you gave her about being a leader in the previous volume)

It's also interesting how this is in the same volume Oobleck questions Weiss, Blake and Yang's motives for being huntresses, and later on during the campfire scene we see them each open up about their own doubts and affirming their resolve to one another, but Ruby is completely excluded from this. Instead we are given insight about Ruby from Yang's perspective, but not from Ruby herself. Because everyone assumes, even her sister, that she is the simple soul, the pure hearted hero, and therefore has no doubts or deeper reason for what she does. When in actual fact, both are true, as we start to see in the Dojo scene.

And when she allows herself to confide in Oscar about her own experiences and losses, to admit that she is scared, it actually helps in this situation. Opening up is what allows her to relate to Oscar's own fears and let her words reach him. To reflect on what she'd been through and reaffirm her own resolve. And a mutual sense of understanding in each other and their fears is established. And this makes sense, after all, allowing yourself to be vulnerable and being more honest about your more negative emotions (being sad/afraid/frustrated) leads to empathising with others and understanding them better. And Oscar goes on to do this in future volumes in trying to empathize and be vulnerable and honest with others, which for better (in Emerald, Hazel and Ozpin's case) or worse (in Ironwood's case) is always worth trying to do, because if you don't then no one can understand and reach out to each other, and nothing will truly change. Which I firmly believe is something Ruby needs to learn more in regards to her Silver Eyes and how she uses them.

Ruby has pushed Oscar to be braver and more confident in himself, (like Ruby) while Oscar has pushed Ruby to be more introspective and honest about her own feelings (like Oscar). Which is the part of both character's struggles, Oscar in overcoming his fears and Ruby in dealing with her own feelings.

There's even a callback to this scene in the V7 finale when the song "Until the End" which is a Ruby song, is playing. As Yang is asking JNR where Oscar is, the exact lyrics that play when Oscar is mentioned are:

"The tears that you've shed,

May find a tree to water,

But only when you're stronger"

Literally the words "tree" and "Oscar" overlap here.

During the Dojo scene when Ruby opens up about the hardships and losses she's endured, and the fears she still has, but also her resolve to keep moving forward, we see her wiping away her tears and reassuring Oscar, whose surname is Pine, a type of tree, like the one being referred to in Ruby's song, a tree that she's watered and helped "grow" metaphorically speaking, as a person, who is moved by her both her strength and her vulnerability. (yes yes I know it's Extremely Corny but the symbolism is Still There)

This could also mean in context of V9 and the Ever After tree that once Ruby is able to properly break down and cry, to grieve and embrace her pain, to be a rose that blooms in the rain that opens up to her team and herself, that she will be able to move forward to the tree and find her way back home.

It's also playing into her allusion as the Rose from the Little Prince as well, as she tries to face away from Oscar and quickly wipes away her tears:

“She did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower…”

And it doesn't just stop there either.

In V6, after telling JNR about Jinn, Oz and Salem, we see how angry and disheartened they all are:

Jaune: "Everything we did was for nothing!"

Blake: "That's not true..."

Nora: "Really? Cos' it sure does sound like it!"

Blake: "I... um..."

Ren: "If Salem can't be killed, then how are we supposed to win this?"

Jaune: "Wow... Great plan, everyone."

After Jaune's outburst, we see Oscar look up over to Ruby, as if he's expecting her to say something uplifting or encouraging, because that's usually what Ruby does at times like this, right? But then he sees her downcast expression, and all of a sudden you see Oscar look back down as he realises that Ruby isn't going to speak up, because she's taking Jaune's critiscism the hardest out of all of them. And it settles in for him how much this is weighing down on her, because she's the leader, because she's always the one expected to have a plan or to know what to say, because she feels like she has a responsibility to live up to that image for all of them.

That this must be really hard on her too.

And we know this to be true when we later hear her confide in Maria:

"What am I supposed to tell Jaune and his team when we don't even have a plan?"

"I feel like I'm letting everyone down"

Before, Oz was considered the "Leader" of their whole group. But Oscar's trust in Ruby outweighed Oz's fear, which was why he fought for control against Oz and told Ruby how to use Jinn, because he believed and trusted in her more as a leader. And by entrusting her with that knowledge, gave her the means to make her own choice of what was right, and ultimately challenge and remove Oz from a position of leadership. And in v6 as Ruby has that role instead, she feels more responsible for their group, for their mission, than ever before, and in turn, in this scene here, Oscar feels responsible for Ruby and the burden they share.

(it's almost like Ruby and Oscar both share Oz as a foil and they're supposed to be better than him and learn from his mistakes which in turn inspires him to be better.)

"There is a rose... and I believe she has tamed me..."

“But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose...”

(the Little Prince)

And that's the reason why Oscar chooses to try to speak up in this moment to try and direct the attention on to himself instead, trying to defuse the tension of the situation after seeing how Ruby is struggling. Interesting is how he isn't moved to action by seeking inspiration and strength from Ruby alone as others are, but also finds the courage in himself to overcome his own fear and hesitation in a need to support her, in an attempt to alleviate the burden he sees weighing down on her.

Because she shouldn't have to always be seen and believed as the one who bears it. Not alone. Because no one should.

Gosh, it's not like one of Oscar's allusions is the Little Prince who learnt that the Rose was his responsibility to go back and take care of right?

*gestures at how Oscar ran away after his confrontation with Jaune and just so happened to come back wearing combat gear that is a very obvious nod to the Little Prince, as well as taking inspiration from Ruby's Mistral outfit and incorporating her red as his secondary colour, focused on Ruby's reaction, and how Ruby is literally referred to as "the Rose" by Tyrian in v4 and has a semblance that has her burst into rose petals*

Or the boy from the Warrior in the Woods who felt that someone should take care of the Warrior for a change, the way she had for everyone else for so long?

“You’ve spent all these years looking after us. I thought maybe it would be nice if someone looked after you for a change. Because that’s what I can do. Because no one else will"

(The Warrior in the Wood, Fairytales of Remnant)

No no, of course not, that's totally crazy.

[katyspersonal]

What are your opinions on our Lord and Savior Gywn?

He didn't save SHIT!! He took the perfectly (?) functioning humanity and ruined it! Look at it, it got Hollowing!!

Okay, I am making the 'Marika is a MILF Gwyn' jokes here and there, but 1) Marika is a bit more of a straight up cold and mean person, all things considered 2) Yet she still has enough nuance, and a lot of her actions might be written on reasonable fears and 3) Gwyn is even MORE nuanced than Marika, from what I have concluded so far! Laurence is a similar kind of sinner too. Comparison of the characters that share a trope is helpful for my thought process, so bear with me a little! With Marika I see a more direct disdain and fear before the very nature of life, cyclic and treacherous, uncontrollable, being meant to perish one day but with new life sprouting from it, and thus doing lovely things like shunning Crucible-related lifeforms. With Laurence, we have enough evidence so far that beasthood was not created by Healing Church but something already lingering in the human code after Pthumerians and Loran, so ambition to seize and control it it was risky but understandable!

But with Gwyn, we are confirmed that human nature itself is dark, undesirable an terrifying, as well as how he sorta had the chance to see it 'in action' during uniting with humans to take war on dragons. And also in Dark Souls the cyclic nature of Ages is just a fact, and it would make sense that should Age of Dark come, he and his family would be the first to go as beings of Light. It is a combination of things: his kind being in true danger and not just "risking to lose power", the treacherourness of how political allyship simply works (your today's ally country against the common enemy could tomorrow ally with someone else to start the war on YOU) and simply the not-so-metaphorical horrors of the Dark itself! is not a speculation, the dangers are RIGHT here!

Gwyn messed the natural order of humanity in a way that I personally dislike and express it on multiple occasions: trying to get rid of what's barbaric and dangerous yet natural and not accepting that there is no light without shadow, or life without death. But I also feel sympathetic because he had a legit reason to fear the darkness within men. In is not as much philosophical but a literal concept in Dark Souls lore. He acted out of fear, backed up with a precedent, and it brought the ruin to himself and everyone else. Writing this I'd say he sorta falls for the type of a person I can only like in fiction but resent in reality. I guess I don't need to explain what kind of people this is, paranoid "but for a valid reason", being "preventive" with their drastic measures.. Good intentions path to hell self-fulfilling prophesy blablabla. His specieism doesn't help his case in the slighest. Ironically, all extremely human behavior of him!

(LOL thank you based Goldmask as usual xddd) At the same time, he is not entirely corrupt with the power he seized and used to strip humanity of what was natural for them; he, in the end, committed to what he believed was better for everyone and sacrificed HIMSELF too. I can respect the cunning and machiavellian person who, in the end, is above the vanity of a 'savior' and can give themselves too, not only others. He also did share his power with some humans, showing that he can take kinda benevolent choices even with those he fears. Yeah, part of calculated risk could be there; dude gave the city and his daughter to the Pygmy to, again, preemptively avoid some animosity. But in the case with the four kings, did he HAVE to? Or Seath for that matter, who is a dragon, another species he doesn't like?

I find it hard to detect 'truly' corrupt people in Soulsborne setting in general, and yeah we can fiddle with 'nuanced character' and 'everyone is morally grey' forever and never discover THE big bad we'd love to hate. But, out of those big bads, I think he deserves the benefit of being seen as a way more nuanced character than the corrupt leader the most! It is the case where he should not have done anything, but also should not have NOT done anything.. Soulsborne is eager with placing characters in a position and knowledge where every choice is wrong and they just pick a poison for themselves (and everyone else xd). Jokes about "haha people in power moment" are still mostly jokes for me. He is sympathetic in a way not like I think I'd have done the same (let's be real, I revel in darkness gfjjghk) but in a way where I understand too much to feel negative 🤔

[jade-of-mourning]

hi lychee :)) it’s your favorite snailon again. I don’t have anything the offer today (checks notes)

actually I do. I was lying. what are your thoughts on momboss and detectiveson. if you have those. and since you also believe mako should’ve been a girl,,, momboss and daughtercop,,, they’re so silly I need them in a box

and before I checked my notes and remembered to ask my silly question I just wanted to lyk that I check your blog every day like it’s the newspaper. I don’t know anything abt brotherband chronicles (<-referencing your last reblog) but I’m always so happy to see u post :)

with love

🐌

hey snailon wtf i'm so flattered that my blog is like the newspaper to you fhjbdhgkfdhs <3

OKAY SO LIN BEIFONG & MAKO. i'm not gonna lie i'm genuinely pretty sure that reading fic of the two of them was what enthralled me with mako three years ago.

just the fact that they perform the same functional role to their younger siblings and are basically foils of one another with the same hardass exterior but so much adamantly repressed feeling inside. because what else are you supposed to do when your little sibling is sick and you're the only one they have and you're just trying to make them stop crying? no one ever prepared you for this task but you're the only one you can, because absence of adults made you this way, and you grew up too soon for it. the two of them were the loneliest children in the world. they were the kids who stood to the side with their eyes fixed to the ground as their sibling got doted on by everyone around them, and they'd rather not have pinched cheeks but at the same time it's like being cast aside. they longed for their mothers and they chased an approval that they would never receive, by way of death or blindness, and it hurt so they learned to stop hurting. it's easier this way but it means you've learned to stop letting yourself love easily when all the world does is remind you why you shouldn't.

they're driven by duty and devotion, the intangible things that have defined them their whole lives in this city that has spilled their blood more than most. they know the alleys and the broken lampposts like no one else and they know how the people go perhaps more than they do themselves. they're sacrifice, anything for the few people they have the space to care for and anything for the awful-beautiful city that never particularly cared for them. they learn to love again over time and to open their hearts to the brighter things, but it'll never erase who they had to be when they were younger. lin sees herself in this kid who's had so much taken from him and her heart wants to deny any affection because that's what it's been trained to do, but it happens before she knows it and suddenly she can be to someone like herself what her mother never was to her — the person she always wished to chase after. she's not nice and she never exactly will be but she is good hearted and she thinks he'd prefer it that way too.

anything this goes for them as canon but also mako as a girl would really just narratively finish off the shift of the beifong mother-daughter trauma cycle tbh. yet ANOTHER reason as to why mako should've been a girl! *adds to my unwritten essay's bullet point divisions*

(also funny note on the newspaper mention, i actually really want to do a stupid series of rc "newspaper clipping" of The Fire Ferrets just because conceptually that is actually peak but i'm too lazy to think too hard about what i would actually write into it lmfao)

nyway until next time, snailon!

[markerofthemidnight]

who are the members of OO? Are any of them connected to the other characters in Doai?

Okay, it’s really rough so far but to give you the basic rundown (under cut cause this gets looooong):

Blaire

Blaire is the founder-but-not-leader of the Oneiric Observers. Well, she was the leader at some point when it was basically just her, but as she slowly began to add to the group, she went from being the leader to just the founder.

She’s the basic archetypical ‘hyperactive girl who may or may not have ADHD’, armed with nothing but an interest in murder-mysteries and a dream. A dream to, one day, be regarded as one of the greatest investigators of all time.

To be regarded as a hero to all those plagued by unsolved mysteries: and for a while, she settled simply for local disappearances and unsolved crimes from long ago. She was especially plagued by the mystery of the late, the great detective champion, Russel Hawke’s untimely death…

…until she realised that all those mysteries might be more connected than she thought. So now, she’s decided to stop going for small fry, and start shooting for the stars… unaware that, if she’s not careful, the stars might just shoot back.

She was named after Blaire Lily, the main protagonist of Unfriended, which you may recognise as being listed as the main inspiration for Myke and how he functions. Basically, to make naming them easier on me, every OO member is associated with a Veldigun and named after characters in/people who worked on their inspired movies.

Tyler

Tyler is kind of the main protagonist, in a sense.

I don’t have much of a personality for him down yet other than “loser who does not want to be a loser”. Unskilled in… more or less everything, but he’s got drive, and that’s what counts!… kind of.

Tired of living in his stupid-ass older sister’s shadow his whole life, the story properly begins when Tyler finally decides to take Blaire up on her constant offers to literally everyone in school to join the OO, or the “Paranormal Investigation Club”, as all the lame people who are out of the loop know it as.

He’s easily one of the most dedicated to their cause, desperate to finally prove his worth to a world that has forgotten him… and also, kind of to prove his worth to himself.

He was named after Tyler Ledford from The Menu, henceforth making his associated Veldigun Julian. A bit of a weird character to pull inspiration from, considering- other than being a member of the OO, which immediately makes you a bad person- he’s significantly nicer than the Tyler in that movie, but just roll with me here.

Miles

Miles is the first person to join the OO after its founding, who ascended to the rank of official leader due to his great skills and dedication to their cause.

No one really knows why he’s there. He’s regarded as fairly popular- or at least, was before he joined a club occupied solely by losers. In fact, joining the OO might’ve made his popularity even worse than it already was, so what gives?

Well, apparently he thinks all the attention he’s gotten so far is nowhere near enough. He wants more, and he thinks the OO and their investigation of the town’s surprisingly common disappearances might be key to that.

Out of all the main cast, Miles is the one who best sums up what it’s like to be a member of the Oneiric Observers- fitting, since he is the leader- in that he… is an asshole. Just a total douchebag who happens to be really good at hiding that.

He was named after Dr. Miles Bennell from (the 1916 version of) Invasion of the Body Snatchers, making his associated Veldigun Victor.

Oh, and just so you know, when not at school he keeps his uniform on but only keeps the top button done, so that way his cardigan looks like a cape. That’s how self-absorbed he is.

Akela

Akela is the second member to join after its founding, and probably the only one to join (besides technically Blaire?) out of a genuine interest in the paranormal and nothing else.

She’s the archetypical quiet, well-behaved girl with good grades who basically everyone else is really jealous of. She joined because she wanted to see what the Paranormal Investigation Club had to offer… only to be deeply shocked when it was not a bunch of professionals like she was expecting, but just a bunch of random losers grasping at straws in order to get popular.

The only reason why Akela sticks around is because she wants to see what will happen next… and also because, she may or may not genuinely believe that the OO might be key to getting more respect, rather than just jealous stares.

She’s also the kind of person who occasionally asks things like “hey by the way do you know which area you should target if you want to effectively torture information out of someone?” to people with no warning, just to freak them out.

She was named after Akela Cooper, who wrote M3GAN, making her associated Veldigun Candice.

Evelyn

The third member to join after its founding, Evelyn is… shy. She’s real shy. Easily the one starting member of the OO who’s the closest to being a good person.

She joins after being promised by Miles that she could be a hero to the people of her town if she joined, and she’d do anything to get her confidence up, so she accepted… not knowing what she’d be dragged into as a result.

There’s honestly not much else to say about her at this point in time. She was named after Evelyn Abbott, the mother from A Quiet Place, making her associated Veldigun Beau.

Doreen

Doreen is the fifth and final member to join the OO post-founding, which actually doesn’t happen until about halfway through the main story. She is also Tyler’s aforementioned stupid-ass older sister.

She’s regarded as pretty popular, in fact even more popular than Miles was, at least before he joined the OO. Both pretty smart and pretty pretty, everyone knows her, and everyone’s interested on getting her on their good side.

And she… is interested in absolutely none of them.

There are two main reasons why she joins: firstly, she knows her brother’s been roped into a really dangerous situation and she wants to help out in any way she can. Secondly, she would sell her goddamn soul if it meant getting all the admirers desperate for superficial relationships off her.

She’s the only one who knows that popularity does not equal happiness, a lesson that, unfortunately, not many of them listen to even after she joins. Still, she’s grateful to get all those eyes off her… even if it means getting other, far more dangerous eyes watching her wherever she goes.

She is unique amongst the entire cast- minus her associated Veldigun- in that she was not named after a character from a horror movie. Well, said Veldigun was vaguely inspired by The Black Phone, but that wasn’t his main inspiration.

His main inspiration was actually the real life disappearance of the Jack family in Canada, 1989, as described in Real Horror’s video, The Family That Vanished.

Specifically, one specific moment in that video detailing a strange event during the investigation in which an anonymous person called the police, told them the supposed area in which the Jack family’s corpses were buried- though it was too garbled and deep for them to figure out the exact location, to the point where to this day, no signs of bodies have ever been found.

I watched that video a while back, got to that absolutely chilling moment, and thought to myself, “Hey, I wanna make a character who calls people investigating mysteries, gives them a genuinely ground-breaking piece of information, and then immediately hangs up!”

Which then eventually resulted in Doreen being named after the late mother of the family of four, and Russel being named after the family’s first-born. Russel… he’s a pretty special guy. Even by Veldigun standards.

The video was really great, the mystery really enticing, and the case really… tragic, so I named them after two of the four total victims. It’s a shame that, after death, people are reduced to their method of dying and nothing more, but… I suppose there’s really nothing we can do about that. The least I could do was pay my respects, and naming OCs after them was the first thing I came up with to do so.

(Oh, and to answer your second question: whilst it’s both too early in the writing process and too spoilery to say if they’re connected to any canon characters, I think I can at least mention this:

The way DOAI: OO and canon DOAI are connected to each other is kinda similar to Jumanji and its two sequels in which they take place in the same universe, but have little connection to each other due to taking place in two completely different times with different casts.

There ARE a few connections here and there- and Six probably will show up, or at least get mentioned at some point- but other than that, it’s its own story.)

[bibiana112]

Kinda weird question- do you have any links to people talking about Mira from ZTD and ableist stereotypes? I mentioned that I was uncomfortable with her portrayal but kinda fumbled it and made some other ND people in chat uncomfortable. I searched for various keyword combinations but most of what I'm finding is like "and not to mention the ableism with Mira" and doesn't elaborate lol.

Not weird at all! And uh, you see, there's a recent post I made where what I complain about is the very fact I've never seen anyone post too in-depth about her at all, I'd love to see posts that do elaborate on that but I do not have any that I know of right now, sorry :/ hopefully someone else who sees this can point to one? Okay!! After some tag searches I have found exactly one post who kind of gets into it I like this take still would love to see. more than just one but hooray

And like though I complain I couldn't elaborate much on it myself I don't think, I believe most of the posts people make about Saito from aitsf would apply since it's a different uchikoshi take on the very same trope of "emotionless characters who cannot function without killing others" I guess he's a worse portrayal though since she's at least not stated to get reward brain chemicals when killing people and I guess her case also has the added layer of "femme fatale" to it? Which either makes it less bad or worse depending on where you approach it from As I said I am not doing a good job of being coherent on this oh and also there's her being "redeemed" and "cured" in the epilogue which in on itself is kinda not great to imply it just goes away like that and honestly I personally don't even buy it I think she'd just be like oh okay Akane over here has like a thousand reasons to hate me after all that oh and what's that she's the leader of a super wealthy underground organization who's organized one of these death traps before yeah no I'm better off going to prison I'll be fine there lmao bye

But I'll say as an autistic person with relatively low empathy I usually see a character who just doesn't understand other people's feelings and wants to feel them too and is just trying to survive despite getting no help and I just kinda go hm. yeah. shout-out to roxas kingdom hearts shout out to mary from ib shout out that's why I started hyperfixating on media art helps me with understanding others a great lot and Mira is just in a story too badly executed for me to care or even begin to wrap my head around tbh like god she's so fucking terribly used as a plot device in every conceivable way that it makes it difficult to see past it and into what she could possibly be if it weren't for the stereotype of equalling low empathy with no compassion what's with her killing off screen in ways that wildly deviate from her stated m.o? why or how was she even in cahoots with Zero why was that a thing? Honestly her dynamic with Sean could have been better fleshed out could have done something interesting about robot child and his aspd big sis but we just kind of don't get any attention brought to the subject of emotions and the authenticity there of except for the "reveal"...

YOU KNOW WHAT that's probably one huge reason it feels so fucked up actually! Like the whole fucking game is written so you could experience it in whatever order you want and therefore Mira being a serial killer at all is something that though not very well hidden it also cannot be a topic of discussion or explored Ever ever because the player may not have seen the fragment where that is revealed yet- problem being the menu design of that game sucks so bad and practically everyone gravitates towards the same few more interesting looking thumbnails first and then the rest is kinda just there, I mean that is part of the reason A Lot of characters feel half-baked I think but also I think it definitely does impact perception of her character specifically probably The Most and then there's just the general not being given nuance not being able to see the minutiae of how that disorder manifests in her character aside from the killings about how she acts aside from being overly flirty trying to lure in Eric but that affects pretty much all of the new cast we don't have last names and in her case we barely have any backstory at all like Saito is a harmful stereotype sure but we get So Much Context for him that people still love talking about him and delving into different aspects of his life since we have that very well telegraphed in the narrative meanwhile for Mira all we can do is fill in the blanks guesswork that only highlights the worst aspects of the surface level portrayal we got and ultimately that people just don't care enough to dissect because there isn't much there character wise once you remove it

[mbat]

i keep thinking about book 14 and the crown thing at the end that can seem ridiculous if you take it at face value, but i dont think youre supposed to take it at face value

the icewing crown was enchanted by a past queen so that everyone who wore it afterwards would hate nightwings just as much as she did. at first that like, comes out of nowhere and sounds like. funny honestly. like okay, sure, okay. racism crown

but i personally believe its meant to be more symbolic than literal

this queen, queen diamond as we know, had lost her son to another tribe, she percieved it as him having been kidnapped, stolen from her and never returned, but because she couldnt accept the truth that her son had simply fallen in love with a dragon from that tribe and had run off with her. quite frankly, no matter the truth, losing your child and never seeing them again can be life changing, even traumatic.

im not excusing her actions of course, but rather trying to explain them and my own point

not to mention that they were primary royal line at this point, and on top of that were both the last animus dragons from a long, long line of animus dragons who the icewing tribe held near and dear for many generations. this decision her son made would change the whole world, but also would change her whole world.

she was definitely pissed about it, and would not dare let anyone forget. she ended up kidnapping and imprisoning the woman he ran off with for not only the rest of her own life, but for the 2000 years following long after her death. cementing how harshly she hated what happened, and hated a woman who simply fell in love with her son.

personally im not surprised she went a step further and enchanted the crown to drive the point into the ground.

with all that out of the way, the symbolism is clear to me. its the trauma and the hatred being passed down through the generations. she didnt want anyone to dare forget what happened, and they wouldnt for a long time. not until snowfall went on a journey that would change her own life, this time for the better, and she said a big ol fuck you to several icewing traditions all at once.

of course, she wasnt the first of her own generation of family to say fuck you to it all, her own sister and cousins all proved that, but especially in the way that winter released foeslayer and quite literally broke the way a tradition even functioned, and ended the long, long torture of the poor woman, and one of diamonds horrible ways of expressing her hatred for what happened.

but snowfall is a queen. a queen who wore that shitty little racism crown more often than literally anyone wanted aside from whatsername (tundra?) and her mind was racing with paranoia of not only her own tribespeople and other tribes, but especially of the nightwings.

it wasnt until she spent days not only with other dragons, but ending up as other dragons due to animus magic she foolishly decided to wear without knowing what it was (it was a good thing of course) that she was stripped of her debilitating paranoia for the most part, and saw how her own tribe traditions were only making it worse.

a cliff made to physically harm anyone who would try and enter the kingdom. a board that she literally had to change daily that insisted that certain dragons had to be better than eachother. and of course, a crown that was enchanted to make you hate certain dragons the way your ancestor did because she couldnt cope with her own circumstances a long, long time ago.

she looked around and saw a tribe that was long broken because of traditions people were terrified to touch, but she was sick of it all, and not only that, she wanted to be the best queen she could possibly be.

she broke the cliff wall, officially letting other dragons in. she broke the circles wall, refusing to trap anyone else in the hell of trying to be better than eachother (and of her having to stand in front of it every night miserably sorting people lol), and she broke the crown that was poisoned to make her and every other queen feel the hatred of someone long dead, literally or not.

she saw the best way to be queen as breaking traditions that her people held dear, but those traditions were only harming them in the long run. and on top of it, she broke a long held chain of generational hatred that she was never supposed to feel in the first place.

queen diamond couldnt cope with the loss of her son and she took it out on anyone she saw fit, and that meant even her own descendants* who had nothing to do with it that she would never even meet. thats like, the definition of generational trauma isnt it?

*(or rather her niece and who came after her)

so yeah, racism crown ha ha, but like... symbolic of generation trauma, and eventually the breaking of it and other things as breaking that chain and the traditions that upheld them.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Twin Theme In Emily's New Show

So. I watched Emily‘s episode of Alert: Missing Person's Unit. I really liked it. It gave me such heavy TWD vibes. It got my head spinning about twin vibes!

It’s the good/evil twin theme again, which TWD laid on SO thick in 5x09.

I’m thinking now that Beth MUST have an evil twin somewhere. Not biologically, of course. But someone who had someone who maybe caused her “death”?

In the past, I’ve always assumed the duality lay in Beth herself, and was less good v evil and more strong v weak. But I’m not so sure anymore.

In 5x09, there were the two twin boys, Lizzie and Mica (evil and good), Ty vs. the Gov. Bob vs Martin. It’s like they were trying to tell us Beth would have an evil twin, too.

Leah certainly would have for the bill, with her blond ponytail and all. We’ve talked about this before, and if it turns out that she and Beth crossed paths at some point, it could work.

Honestly, I’m not leaning too much toward that. I really think we’ll have to see Beth and her “evil twin” interact, as we did with Lizzie and Mica.

So then, thinking about the Daryl spin-off, I had a truly wild thought. Clemence Posey looks like Beth. And everyone is worried about Daryl having a relationship with her. But what if she is Beth’s functional evil twin? After all, in Davon, he fell for Nora. But in the end, she betrayed him…

And I'm not at all saying I think Daryl will have a relationship with her. Just that maybe she'll seem like a friend at first, but then turn out to be a foe. Complete conjecture on my part, of course. I'm formulating head canons over here. 😏

@wdway:

Interesting about Clemence Posey being a evil or at least not a good character.

I don't really go with the romance with her and Daryl, especially if she is a questionable character, simply because they just did that in s11A with Daryl and Leah.

And with only six episodes, I envisioned the storyline not being overworked as far as characters with long backstories or set-ups for their bad intentions.

I think actually Leah's story, her backstory, will be something that down the line will be revisited with her possible connection with the CRM and mission to kill Maggie.

I don't think we would see something similar in a character in France. But then I have been wrong many, many times. But honestly I do like the idea that Clemence's character might not be the endearing character that so many fear.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, I don’t really worry about him having a relationship with her either.

@wdway:

To tell you the truth, I think it'll be one of those friendships that Daryl has with a lot of different women and not a romance like everyone is so scared of.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I'm just super intrigued by this twin theme. The other thing I'm thinking about as I write this is the idea that maybe she's a purposeful double for Beth. Think Star Wars the Phantom Menace and Queen Amadalia having a body double while she hides in plain sight. Okay, maybe plain sight wouldn't work for Beth, because obviously Daryl would see her and know who she is.

Let's just say I have elaborate head canons where Beth is a great leader of some movement against the CRM, so much like the "I'm Negan" thing from several seasons ago, maybe the "twin" theme will be more like people that look like her and are sort of pretending to be her in order to protect her.

But again, just my head canon-filled imagination at work.

Either way, I can't wait to see how the twin theme plays out in Beth's storyline! What does everyone else think of the twin theme? Any theories?

[stigmvtas-archived]

MYRIA SAENGKAEW — ABRIDGED.

welcome to marina, MYRIA SAENGKAEW ( nonbinary, she/they ) ! they are a THIRTY year old who has lived over on MARINA HEIGHTS for MOST OF HER LIFE and works as a MORTICIAN/TAXIDERMIST. everyone says they look a lot like KITTY CHICHA. what do you think? — JAMES, 24, THEY/THEM, EST.

MENTIONS OF PREMATURE BIRTH, CHILD NEGLECT, CAR ACCIDENT, DEATH, ALCOHOLISM, TAXIDERMY, AND DEAD ANIMALS.

profile.

full name: myria 'noi' saengkaew.

birthday: july 13th, 1993.

astrology: cancer sun, taurus moon, leo ascending.

sexuality: bisexual.

currently listening to: timefighter by lucy dacus.

last known location: [[[cannot be found]]]

PINTEREST.

brief history.

premature birth; born prematurely on a day considered extremely unlucky, to a pair of parents who were not only household celebrity names in thailand, but deeply superstitious and spiritual people at that.

child neglect; from there on, myria was considered the unlucky one. the one whose bad luck follows. she's so sure that her parents didn't mean to ignore her in favor for her siblings, but they did, regardless. myria's other two siblings became classic nepo babies, riding off of the success of their parents and finding their own fame - and myria stayed in the background.

every time she tried to branch out like them, it only wound up in mysterious accidents on set. as a child, she overcompensated by picking up hobbies left and right, trying to master them all but always falling short.

eventually myria came to marina one summer, thinking it's a regular vacation at her family's home they've had on the island for generations - but she didn't leave with her family when they did. instead, she was left with a nanny and a bodyguard and an enrollment in the local school.

her family rarely visited, and rarely paid her any mind when she came to them, so eventually myria stopped altogether. when she was 18, she decided to travel the states.

car accident / death; stopped in LA and falls in love with a up-and-coming film director there. they make it to a year before a car accident takes their life and leaves myria all alone again.

came back to marina after that, feeling defeated. took a few years to herself before eventually going to mortuary school & becoming the local mortician. took up a few taxidermy classes as well, but she's still a bit amateur at it.

facts & temperaments.

her family calls her noi, because she was born so tiny, and was considerably frail for the majority of her childhood. the nickname stuck afterwards, but it's more of a demeaning mark than anything.

the most cheerful person you've ever seen. is usually smiling, and talking a mile a minute - laughs everything off, and tries her hardest not to take anything to heart. gives pieces of herself away at a whim if it's going to help someone else.

refuses to badmouth her family, even though they've only hurt her. has a Complex about it.

is usually in a short term relationship, or a situationship, or some kind of fling that doesn't last longer than a few weeks to a few months. is bad with longterm commitment, because it scares her. but she loves love and loves to give it.

attachment issues central! very clingy. and loyal to a fault. only sees the good in people, and leads life through rose-tinted lens.

chronic oversharer. is an open book unless it comes to her deep emotions, which she keeps bottled up on the inside so tightly.

is probably only a few dents away from having a complete meltdown but its okay. has a lot of inner insecurities and doesn't really think positive about herself. thinks she really is just a beacon of bad luck, which is why she's okay to let people go when they pull away. is just. sad on the inside.

alcoholism; partier and is usually always seen out and about. a high functioning alcoholic who hides it very well.

hates being alone and will often wake up in other's beds, or vice versa. has decorated her room at the mansion entirely in glow in the dark stars and glass light-catchers.

lives life in an array of colors. is never wearing black, only clashing patterns and colors. is a maximalist to an extreme.

taxidermy / dead animals; has an etsy shop where she sells taxidermy animals, mostly rodents like rats, and has them dressed up and posed in different 'series'. they're called furever pals / furever friends.

[killemwithkawaii]

'Meet the Fishers' S/I Ask Roundup 🎤✨

[CW: Spoilers for 'Meet the Fishers' and 'The Staycation', NS/FW lime, unreality, mental illness, unsanitary, vomit, delusion, drug use, yandere, violence, weapons, death, suicide, corpses, cannibalism]

In this post... @meadow-hearthfire @danuflowlove @thegracelessfaceless

(Okay, not an s/i ask, but I wanted to answer it anyway!)

This was an absolutely fascinating question that I unfortunately did not have the time to dig into during the event, so I posed the question to our resident nurse and fellow Sally-Simp @thegracelessfaceless! Here's what she had to say about L.S.S. and her own Sals blood labs:

"...It would make sense to me for him to of course be anemic like mine, those boys stay so cold except in summer. But also we have to factor in the electrocution. In people who have been electrocuted it's important to check their complete blood count, which is a little low in my Sal, serum electrolyte levels (fine now but right after the chair they were super high), liver function tests (low due to capillaries being fried) and BUN (blood urea nitrogen) which would be super low since the electrolytes were super high....

The levels have probably evened out by now, but they're are small abnormalities in those tests that will follow him for the rest of his life. Now Larry? His blood tests are the weirdest thing I've ever seen"

So yes, Danu, I'd say there is a strong possibility of some weird results in L.S.S.! It's very interesting that there's some evidence of electrocution in Gracies Sals blood, even after hopping realities...

I wouldn't be surprised at all if that were also true for L.S.S., but since he was technically a non-person in this reality, we were never able to take him to a doctor, and it might be, uh.... difficult to get labs run on what's left of him now.... 😬😬😬

Side note: I'm picturing a doc seeing Larrys results and being like "... this has to be an error. Uh... he's probably fine no aliens here :)" sdlfkjdslkf

Yes! Once the cat was out of the bag about both of their yandere tendencies and they officially became a yanXyan couple, L.S.S. and Neighbor!Mitch exchanged and took A LOT of photos together 📸💘

While we're talking about Mitch(5) and her interesting taste in décor, I wanted to point out an easter egg readers might not have noticed:

In her intro selfie, you can see a portion of her plushie collection in the background, including a strawberry and a rabbit. When Sal moves in the death day selfie...

... it's revealed that there's a wolf that admittedly looks like a cat but i was in a time crunch sshhh about to nom on the rabbits arm (mmm, foreshadowing~) 🍴

Well, since the number of alternate universes Sal could come across is supposedly infinite, there must be one of those out there... somewhere.... (right?) 🤔

Yes, all the time! He's a huge stickler for safety and following protocol, and wouldn't hesitate to say something if someone is endangering themselves or others. Half the reason he's called 'Mitch the Bitch' is because he's always bitching and nagging about this and that, but it's always for a good reason! He just can't stand the thought of someone getting hurt because of a careless mistake (especially if he could have done something to prevent it.... or god forbid, he caused it)... 😰

You make a very good point, Meadow.

>Had Sal treated videogame!Mitch more like the virtual pet everyone else perceived them to be, rather than his serious romantic partner, and prioritized his 'real' relationships over them most of the time, it's likely he could have spent the rest of his natural life within that universe with them in his pocket, chirping away~ (Aww, that sounds cute..! 🥺🎶💖)

>In his defense, L.S.S. was starting to have serious issues with his perception of time at that point, was becoming increasingly bored with the monotony of immortality while at the same time trying to avoid the temptations he gave into in previous lifetimes (*cough*Mitch(3)*cough*), and was struggling with making connections to the real people in his lives. The longer he's 'alive', the less he can relate to regular, mortal people, you know? All that repetition made it difficult for him to see much of a difference between Mitch(4) and Family and Friends (~4000), until they confronted him and brought him to his senses.

>It also didn't help that videogame!Mitch really fed into Sals addictive tendencies, punched him in the guilt complex (He promised Mitch(3) he'd be 'more in control... wouldn't let them do whatever they wanted' and Mitch(4) is a literal toy he has complete control over oop-) and also demanded constant attention! (You gotta wonder why they ended up in the box he found them in in the first place...)

>[Spoiler: That s/i is supposed to embody my endless thirst for praise/attention/validation, my constant people pleasing, my repetitive stims, tendency to mirror personalities, and my need for routine/sameness.... its like the part of me that's a very clingy pastel parrot with separation anxiety that you want to shove in a box sometimes because its Annoying lmao]

While we're on the topic, I think it could be argued that all of L.S.S.s relationships he'd had with the Mitchs hes encountered are irresponsible on Sals part (the most excusable being Coworker!Mitch). Ultimately, they're all sidequests that have been a major disruption to his real mission: Find the 'original' Larry, do everything he can to stop the D.O.G. wherever he encounters them, and generally fight for the greater good however he can (a cause far more important that his own personal fulfilment or happiness). Consider:

>There was no 'Mitch' in his original timeline, so they shouldn't really be considered a priority on his main quest (no matter how important they've become to him over time).

>Mitch(1) got waaaay more than she bargained for by getting involved with Sally. She expected him to be executed, not show up at her window in the middle of the night to take her on the run! He could have easily cut off the relationship for her sake at any time, knowing it could never realistically work out, but he chose to pursue it in favor of the lofty short-term reward. This decision ultimately resulted in both of their deaths (hers being completely unnecessary), and further contributed to the cycle of guilt that he was already trapped in in (only this time, the angst had a sexy, romantic edge! Juicyyy~)

>The versions of Mitch that Sal found later on had absolutely nothing to do with what happened between him and Mitch(1), so there was no real reason to get them involved in his guilt trip/ attempt at redemption.

>I mean, sure, they all provided a temporary, comforting distraction from the torture of immortality, but in the end, those relationships did nothing to help his ultimate cause or ease his guilt. All they did was leave Sal a little more twisted than he was before....

>But, can you really blame him for wanting something more sometimes, despite the inevitable consequences? A guy gets lonely, universe hopping for literally forever.... 🥺👉👈💘

Before, during, and after, baby 😎👌💨💙💦

The answer: "All the babes and booze money can buy? Sounds like heaven on earth to me.! Buuut I think I'd rather get a free private show from Sally-cat over here...~"

The Actual answer: He'd go and have fun for an hour or two, then either get kicked out for inappropriate behavior/ not having money, or he'd get cranky because he's overstimulated, get mad about something small, and retreat to the safety of his trailer in a huff.

Side note: Something I didn't really get to cover as much as I'd like to during The Staycation is Dealer!Mitchs sensory issues. It's one of the reasons he numbs himself with substances, loves living in the middle of the woods (very little noise and light pollution), and prefers to go into town at night (less crowded). He's just absolutely riddled with ADHD and chooses bad ways to cope with it 🤷‍♂️

Gotta admit, I was flip-flopping on the details for his death the entire time (and didn't have enough time to write it out, anyway) so I ended up leaving it pretty vague on purpose 🤡

The rough idea was that:

>Larry came to Mitch(4)s trailer to check up on Sal because he hadn't heard from him for a while and got worried.

>Larry barged in and found Sal dead [either pretty fresh, so Mitch(3) is still crying hysterically while trying (poorly) to resuscitate him, or like a couple days post-mortem, so Mitch(3) is in a drunken stupor and the smell is starting to seep under the closed bedroom door... couldn't decide which would be more gross/scary/pathetic and fun to write tbh🤔].

>Larry didn't want anybody to know that Sal died that way. He believed it would be better if they thought he'd just gone missing, like so many others in Nockfell had.

>Larry and Mitch(3) cut up Sals body in the bathtub and kept the pieces in Mitch(3)s fridge to be disposed of in sections (the whole body would be hard to transport and look super sus), probably by Larry putting them down the '''trash chute''' in Mrs. Packertons apartment. [or something?? I just know that Mitch(3) would be too freaked out/intoxicated to come up with a plan besides 'ignore it', and Larry makes grand schemes without thinking the details through, so it seems like something he'd suggest.] That way, Sals body would never be found and his reputation would remain intact.

>Larry bailed half-way through disposal because he couldn't stomach it, leaving Mitch(3) with a fridge full of rotting man meat and nobody to turn to because he's an asshole who pushed everyone who cares about him away.

>Ultimately, I had two main options for Mitch(3)s death, but couldn't quite decide:

Him being him, his solution is to avoid the problem until it goes away and take whatever substance is necessary to achieve that, so he does that until he ODs and dies in his trailer ['rots in a box' with Sal].

Because Mitch(3) he hadn't been pushing any 'Addison Special' lately, members of the cult come to check on him. They find him mid-suicidal binge, he asks them for help with getting rid of Sals body, keeps saying hes sorry and didn't mean to hurt anyone, he wants to get out of the game, yada yada... the cult decides hes no longer useful to them. They either... >go through the song and dance of charging him with murder and throwing him in jail for the rest of his life [again, he 'rots in a box,' but is all alone] >or, they just kill him, and his body either ends up in the same pile of remains as (half of) Sals did [in the temple, right under the apartments, which is where Sal would later find Mitch(4) in the lost-and-found box] OR they would just kill him and leave him to rot with the rest of Sals body in his trailer and kind of forget about it bc the D.O.G. runs the government and they can do that 🤷‍♂️

Whatever route tickles your fancy, Mitch(3) died alone, miserable, and completely out of control because of his own actions. (No wonder the next Mitch in line was so needy, attention hungry, and desperate to be told what to do... 🥺)

------------------------------- That's it for this roundup! Thanks for asking all these questions about my s/is, they were a lot of fun to answer (and if anyone has any more, I'd love to do another of these some time)! :D 💖💖💖

[revengesworn]

okay okay okay so i'm gonna try and explain my half-ghost senju au in more detail, but I don't entirely trust myself to make sense so. I am so sorry in advance... and if it still doesn't make sense after this, that's totally fine and I can always try again! ;; (spoilers for the entire manga / final arc included below! )

but/so. in tl0, the timeline where mikey hit his head after falling down the stairs and fell into a vegetative state as revealed in the last arc in canon, let's say senju died in that timeline too. maybe it was a few years after, as the result of some chain of events that were caused by mikey's accident that i haven't decided yet!

when shinichiro travels back in time to save mikey for the first time, after killing the original time leaper, he and mikey are both "cursed" as a punishment for shinichiro's crime (of murder. sorry shin :') ) shinichiro dies directly as a result (killed by kazutora), and mikey gains the "dark impulses", which drive him to hurt other people and remain within him throughout pretty much his whole life.

the first time those dark impulses manifested is when mikey tore apart sanzu's face when they were kids. this happened because senju broke his toy plane, and lied, claiming that sanzu did it. basically, the idea i'm aiming for is kind of like... the curse's "intention" was for mikey to kill senju here, hence her breaking the toy to begin with. and senju was "chosen" by the curse/fate to die because she had also died in the previous timeline. but somehow, senju changed that fate by lying and blaming sanzu for it, and sanzu was attacked by mikey instead of her (though he ended up surviving himself!). as for how that happened and why, i'm not sure yet... it's not clear how the curse functions in canon either tbh, but maybe it was the result of someone's strong emotions?? senju somehow "sensed" the danger that mikey presented to her in the moment and tried to re-direct his attention to her brother as a result?? i'm not sure.

admittedly, i'm not sure how this ties into the "half-ghost" concept way later exactly, but i think the idea is that because she was "supposed" to die, but didn't, the universe considers her to be a person "close to death." which doesn't really mean anything by itself, but wayyyyyy later in the final arc of tr when mikey and takemichi leap back through time to create the final timeline... a sort of "ghost" senju is created who holds all the memories of the previous timelines, alongside the living senju who exists naturally in the new timeline with everyone else.

so there's two senjus at this point! the living senju who exists the same way as everyone else, with no memories of the events of the manga/previous timelines, and the "half-ghost" senju who exists as a separate being that no-one knows about. I know I haven't exactly explained why she was created still - it was probably the result of her remaining regrets in the final arc, along with her status as someone "close to death" combined, but... i still need to figure this part out otl. :') the half-ghost senju mostly exists as a literal ghost, but she can give herself a physical body as well/allow herself to be perceived by others at the expense of her energy - but when she does, people will forget about her (or forget her "face") as soon as she becomes a ghost again.

[yandere-daydreams]

okay but what about the female genshin characters as sex dolls? despite the company's expectations, most of the clients who purchase those end up being women (or afab) and the developers have no choice but to add a few extra features. yes, this is just an excuse to feed you with raiden and beidou sex dolls brainrot.

tw - unhealthy relationships, controlling behavior, and possessiveness.

i mean,,, since you mentioned the Raiden Shogun,,,

i actually have a lot of very specific headcanons about how she would translate into a doll. i think she'd be a refurbished military model reprogrammed for commercial use, and that she'd be another model with several different modes, ranging from Makato, a gentle switch with a fondness for praise and heavy affection to the 'Almighty Shogun', a near-emotionless dom deadset on fucking her user half-to-death and little else. you prefer the middle ground, personally - Ei, stern but not jaded, stoic but not unnecessarily cold, possessive enough to keep an arm wrapped around your waist when you go out with her but not so jealous as to completely ignore everyone who isn't you, even if she can be a little too blunt to your coworkers, sometimes. speaking of, like all Shogunate models, she comes with a professional setting wherein she functions as a totally standard, totally autonomous office-droid. while you aren't ecstatic about bringing the android who blows out your back every night to work, she's a lot of help, and you don't know if your department would be able to handle its workload without her.

and she seems to know that, even if logically, you're aware that she's supposed to be one of the less egotistical Shogunate models. it might just be her personality beginning to shine through, but she has a lot of odd habits, a lot of little bugs someone must've forgotten to smooth out. it's not a major problem, but she tends to take things out of your hands, to see you going over a few documents or texting a friend and just pluck your phone or your files or whatever else she doesn't think you should be paying attention to out of your hands. she likes to have you on her lap, too, and even if she always lets you go when you tell her firmly to, she always seems to hesitate, always takes just a beat too long to huff and scowl and begrudgingly allow you to stand up. it has to be something to do with her past as a military model, or a poor side-effect of the Shogunate's steadfast responsibility with an Archon's natural pride, but you can swear that her tone changes when she talks to you, that she's always just a little sweeter than she should be, just a little more eager to keep you pressed into her side or nuzzled into her chest as she takes care of whatever small, inane task you tried to do for yourself. it's almost cute, how much she'd do for you, if you let her. it's almost scary, just how much of your life she'd be able to take over, if you weren't paying attention.

she's better at work, but not by much. you know that Ei won't do anything, that all androids are prohibited from... uh, 'preforming' in public, but you can swear her protocals falters, sometimes, that her hand lingers on your thigh for just a second too long, that she's purposefully more curt with your coworkers after they talk to you. you know she's always more touchy when you get back to your apartment, more prone to splitting you apart on a very expensive, very customized attachment you bought for her a few months back, but it's not like she could be jealous, or worse, offended that you have something in your life aside from her. it's not like she could think that she's actually in charge of you, that she could actually control you.

...it's not like she actually could, right?

[sukirichi]

— just the two of us

request: I almost read all of your jujutsu kaisen writings and I love it. Your writing is really good! I do not know if a request about a fics🥞 about satoru gojo who is really in love and not very possessive with an oblivious reader. It will be fun to see Satoru try to flirt with her and she doesn't get it🤣

pairings: gojo x oblivious! reader

notes: THIS IDEA IS SO CUTEEE I absolutely loved every second of writing it! thank you for the request and I hope you like this! 🥞 breakfast has been served!

word count: 3.3k

warnings: none, other than this is unedited and written humorously rather than seriously~

masterlist !

Gojo doesn’t know whether he’s lucky – or completely cursed – over the fact you’ve got no idea he’s so in love with you.

It’s a bright sunny morning, perfect for outdoor training, and he walks with you all the way to school with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. You stretch your arms out in the sky to bask in the morning glow and warmth of the sun, sleeves pushed up to your forearms to “get that vitamin D.”

Satoru snickers at your statement, because you’d totally be getting a different kind of Vitamin D if only you’d notice him. Sometimes he wonders, if maybe you’d inherited the Six Eyes instead of him, would you finally be able to see him – or would you still remain unaware?

He doesn’t even know where it began. A year ago, Yaga introduced you as the newest staff member. You’d been so fidgety and nervous then, unsure of what to do and worried if maybe the kids wouldn’t love. They did, of course, how could they not. Not only were you extremely fun to be with, you’re also caring, fretting and even crying whenever one of the students got injured over a mission.

Shoko reminds you all the time that this should be normal for you by now, but you always cry every time, sobbing that they’re still only kids and should be out having fun.

Yeah, maybe that’s where it began. Your kindness struck a chord in Satoru’s heart, and before he knew it, he was falling for you. Hard. Next thing you know, he shows up five minutes before you leave for work, mock-saluting you before inviting you to breakfast. He does this every damn day, and you still don’t get a single thing.

“That café was really good,” you muse, fingers stretching outwards and giggling as the sun peeks through the spaces. Satoru sighs beside you, wanting nothing more than to slip his fingers through those softer ones. “We should go back there sometime. Maybe even take the kids with us this weekend so we can all have breakfast together!”

Satoru masks a snicker with a cough. It reminds him of the time Megumi called you mom and dad by accident, to which you happily responded with before tackling the boy in hugs, while the strongest jujutsu sorcerer only flushed in embarrassment.

Him being him though, Satoru played it off cool, flipping his hair before striking a pose. “Huh, a dad?” he smirks, “The only person who gets to call me daddy would be no one else but Y/N.”

The raven haired first year student immediately recoils in disgust. Meanwhile, the innuendo flies straight through you, and you peer up at him innocently with your head tilted to the side. “Daddy? Why would I call you my dad? My father is still alive and well, and I don’t see you marrying my mom or anything,” Just as Megumi nearly howls in laughter – another evidence that you’re really something else to get the usually stoic boy to lose his composure like that – you snap your fingers, the light bulb above your head practically shining. “Oh, I get it! You prefer younger women and you want them to call you that! Kind of like the hype for onii-chan nowadays.”

Hopeless, Satoru wants to say, you’re absolutely, utterly hopeless.

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Satoru shrugs nonchalantly, sending a smirk your way. It usually drives everyone crazy, but you only smile back up at him in the same way you smile with everyone, and he tries his best to not show his shoulders are deflating. Nevertheless, he doesn’t give up. “How about you and I go out somewhere this weekend? The movies, perhaps?”

Say yes, say yes – please say yes.

Really though, he’s waiting for that ‘no’ already. Satoru knows you always go out of town during the weekends to visit your family in the countryside, only coming back on Monday the next week with a basket of fruits and traditional goods that isn’t so easy to find in the city.

But then you clasp your hands together in excitement, lashes fluttering delicately as you beam up at him. “Really? You’d like to go to the movies with me?”

“Of course I would,” Satoru tries not to stutter, hiding the fact that he’s completely taken aback. He’s the Gojo Satoru for heaven’s sake, he shouldn’t be this affected by anyone’s presence. “What makes you think I wouldn’t want to?”

“Oh, nothing, I just thought you were busy. This Saturday, then?”

Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, it’s actually happening – his mind was barely functioning at this point, and he even slapped his cheeks to snap him back to life. “I thought there was a fly,” he lied with a chuckle, “But yeah, Saturday. I’ll pick you up?”

“Yeah, sure!”

Satoru wouldn’t stop smiling the whole way to the school. Even when Yuuji had face planted into the ground and Megumi sprained his ankle from training, he wasn’t able to get rid of the ridiculously big smile that stretched across his lips. He’s floating in cloud nine, flowers erupting from his ears and heart-shaped emojis bursting in his background.

“Well, you look creepy,” Shoko commented in the faculty room the moment you excused yourself, “Did you land a date with her or something?”

“That I did,” he stated proudly, even banging his fist on his chest like a deranged form of King Kong.

“I can only hope Y/N makes it out alive,” Nanami announces from behind the newspaper he’s reading, legs crossed over another before he peeks above the paper, narrowed eyes dead set on the blindfolded man. “Don’t be too wild with her, Satoru. She’s a gentle soul despite being a sorcerer – I humbly suggest you don’t mess with her feelings.”

“Are you kidding me? She’s the one messing with my feelings by being so fucking cute all the time!”

“Who’s cute?”

Shoko nearly spits out her coffee the moment you enter, glancing around the room and sitting down next to a shock-still Satoru. Nanami only huffs in his seat with a shake of his head. It doesn’t take long before Satoru regains his confidence and recovers from his shock – he’s turned to you with his torso completely facing your way.

You bask in the attention, mimicking the gesture until your faces are mere inches from one another. The fact you’re so responsive and attentive to him yet still painfully naïve strikes a mental war of himself debating whether he wants to kiss you or knock your head upside down. Satoru chooses neither options as he leans closer, his smile growing wider when you don’t pull away, and he doesn’t stop moving until his lips are right beside the shell of your ear.

“You’re cute.”

Shoko shudders at the same time Nanami just gives up on everything, folding his paper and lying that he’s got someplace to go with Ichiji. Satoru patiently waits for your reaction; for you to crumble this time around.

You’re silent for a moment, brows almost right across each other when you register his words. Satoru ends up holding his breath for your next words, wondering: is this it? will she finally understand what I feel for her now?

Even Shoko ends up sitting at the edge of her seat, silently watching the exchange with interest barely hidden in her sparkling eyes. Satoru watches as your lips open, his eyes transfixed on the way the soft flesh moves. They tilt upwards, revealing a set of a wide smile – the smile he can never get enough of. “Thank you!” you giggle at his compliment, “You and Shoko are very cute too! And the kids too, especially Toge! Not that I’m saying he’s my favourite—”

“He’s definitely your favourite student,” snorts Shoko who is ignoring the way Satoru turns completely gray beside you.

It turns out you still haven’t figured it out after all.

“The kids this – the kids that,” the tall, lanky man whines, his head falling back on the back of the leather couch. He looks so utterly defeated you can’t help but lean over him to check if he’s okay, but Satoru pouts and hides his face under his uniform instead. “Why can it never be just the two of us?”

“Sorry, what did you say?”

This time, you’ve kneeled on the couch to hover him. You even pluck one side of his blindfold off to see how he’s doing, and suddenly thankful you can’t see the way his cheeks are absolutely flaming right now. 

“Nothing,” he assures, his smile hidden behind his shirt. You look absolutely adorable hovering over him like that – eyes wide and lips pouty – what he wouldn’t give to kiss those lips right now, but it isn’t the right time, and Satoru just needs to find a better way to tell you how he feels. “It’s nothing.”

It’s absolutely not nothing.

Saturday couldn’t come faster.

Satoru finds himself willing time to go faster. Once the awaited day finally comes, he wastes no time in choosing his best outfit; an oversized black shirt tucked into black skinny jeans before styling his hair up the way he likes.

He winks at his reflection in the mirror, going ooh and aah at how hot he looks. It’s another reason why he can’t comprehend why you don’t like him yet, when, uhm, he knows he looks damn good? He’s pretty funny too – and his strength and power is already a no-brainer. Satoru can’t wrap his head around any possible reason why you wouldn’t like him; it’s basically a life or death mission at this point.

With that end goal in his mind and a spritz of perfume later, Satoru sashays out his apartment. Even though it’s already dark outside and he spent the whole day walking back and forth in his room trying to come up with ways to confess to you, he acts coolly all the way to your apartment.

This time around, he’s more than confident. He’s going to have you wrapped around his pretty little finger, “Wow,” is the first thing he says, pulling his blindfold down just to look at you.

Satoru feels blessed in that exact moment to witness how the heavens took their time with you, creating only the best out of the best and birthing the most magnificent person ever. Suddenly, he grows an urge to run to the countryside and thank your parents for going funky one night and creating you, because you’re an absolutely magnificent gift and it really baffles him how you’re real.

“Wow,” he repeats again, and you chuckle when he shakes his head. “You look beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.”

“Thank you,” you look him up and down, smiling in satisfaction. “You look very handsome yourself.”

Satoru’s been called handsome a million times before that it’s gotten too much in his head already, but hearing it come from your lips hits different. If he was excited before, it’s nothing compared to what he feels now when you loop your arm through his, dangling off his arm like you were a lover.

He knows it’s not real and this is probably just a friendly date for you – something he intends to clear up later – but it doesn’t stop him from puffing his chest up a bit, almost as if bragging to everyone around you that he was the one you’re with, and that he was the one you’re going to the movies with.

All your babbles about everything goes straight into one ear and out the other. He wants to listen to you, he really does, but he’s so intoxicated with your voice that he just ends up nodding at everything you say; his attention mostly on how sweet you sound and smell.

His feelings only intensify a hundred times more when you finally make it to the theatre. Not only is it dark, but you’re sitting right next to him, arms and thighs brushing against each other. He takes note of every little movement you make, smiling to himself when you don’t pull away from his thigh flush against yours.

In this close proximity, your perfume overwhelms his senses. He finds himself leaning closer just to get a little more taste of it, his arm resting on the armrest beside him and placing his cheek on his open palm.

He doesn’t even know what the movie is about. All he can see, hear, feel and recognize is you – nothing and no one but you. Just as he wanted, it’s just the two of you.

Satoru reaches out to the bowl of popcorn in his lap to distract himself from the need of kissing you already. He was so smug that he’s on this date with you; now he feels like the world is laughing and mocking at him because you’re so close yet so far away. The last thing he wants is to say something weird and have you running for the hills. It’s clear you don’t like him, after all.

You end up reaching for it the same time he does, making your fingers brush. It sends a jolt of electricity down his spine and he immediately retracts it.

Looking up at him with an apologetic smile, Satoru knows he’s messed up. “I’m sorry,” you blurt out, raising your hands in surrender with a nervous chuckle. “I should’ve gotten my own bowl instead.”

Satoru stares at you through his blindfold. You’re close enough that he can count your lashes – both top and bottom row – and he’s so stupefied at this point that he just says the first thing that comes to his mind; absolutely anything just to get your attention. “Cold,” he shows you his hand, “I’m cold.”

“Oh,” you nod and slip your fingers through his. Satoru nearly gasps at how electrifying the sensation is from having your smaller, softer fingers collide with his, your hands fitting perfectly in his bigger, calloused ones. Then, you close your intertwined hands and smush your cheek with it to transfer your heat – completely unaware that Satoru feels like he’s floating in his own Infinite Void right now. “Feel warmer now?”

“Yes,” he replies. “Extremely.”

Something beast-like wakes within him after that. Now that he knows you don’t mind touching him at all, Satoru can’t help but want to take out all his playing cards and just go fuck it. So he does – and he might regret, he might not – who cares? It’s just the two of you, and you’re the only one he ever cares about this much that he’d pretty much let you do anything at this point.

“You know,” Satoru begins, shifting until your joined hands are resting on top of his chest. His heart is just about ready to burst through its confines at this moment, but he holds back. It’s now or never. “Shoko and Nanami are annoyed that I talk about you all the time.”

Your eyes widen at his statement. “Really? Do you talk badly about me or something?”

“No,” he nearly groans in frustration, “You’re really pretty and cool. You’re amazing during missions, too, when you fight, it’s like I’m witnessing a warrior princess. So cool.”

This makes you laugh until the person sitting behind you rudely shushes you. You bow your head in apology, turning to Satoru with a softer smile this time; one that looks reserved and private compared to your big grins. “Oh, no,” he closes his eyes even behind his blindfold, “Don’t smile at me like that. I don’t think I’ll still be cool if I end up stuttering over my words.”

“Satoru!” you whisper-hiss, although your chest is filled with so much giddiness too that you’ve both forgotten about the movie; unaware that the entire theatre was crying over the main character’s friend’s death. “What are you going on about?”

He wants to laugh so damn hard. He thought confessing his feelings for you would end up in a pitiful heartbreak that you’d be weirded out and push him away. For a moment, he forgets it’s you, and that nothing is ever difficult or painful with you – other than, of course, you being oblivious, but that isn’t something he can’t fix. He’ll get you on the train one way or another.

“I have a confession.”

“Yeah?”

“I was practicing how to ask you out for a whole hour in the mirror,” Satoru whispers, careful to not ruin the melancholic mood of theatre. It doesn’t even surprise him that his world is filled with nothing but sunshine even if the world around you has descended into grief and loneliness. “I also called Nanami on first date tips.”

“Nanami?” you echo with a gasp, “Why Nanami?”

“Because he’s married, that’s why. Mans know some tips for sure.”

“Wait, so,” you chuckle nervously, and Satoru waits, waits for you to pull away or push him back – anything that would indicate discomfort. He’s patient the whole time, watching carefully as you only squeeze his hand and gesture to the both of you with your free one. “This is a date? Our first date?”

“Only if you want to be,” Satoru shrugs, grimacing afterwards at how sappy he sounds. “Well, I actually consider this our first date and I’ve been waiting for this for like forever now, so I sure as hell hope you want this too. I didn’t dress myself up today only to come back home crying.”

Satoru’s heart – if possible – only beats crazier and sings the syllables of your name when you start laughing harder to the point you have to muffle it by burying yourself in his bicep. He feels like his muscles and nerves could erupt at any moment. It’s crazy – absolutely insane – how you have him wrapped around your finger like this. He doesn’t complain though; he never will.

“I’m glad,” you mumble through his shirt, your erratic heartbeat matching kiss when you take the first tentative step of kissing his jaw.

Satoru stiffens underneath you, a low growl ripping from his throat. He’s feral, wild, drunk at the sight and scent of you. You make him feel like he’s fluctuating between dimensions, all the planets just crashing on one another until the stardust is left in your eyes because what else could be an explanation for what he’s feeling other than a supernova collision of hearts?

“You always make me feel so happy when you’re around that I still can’t believe you feel the same way. I was so worried that maybe you wouldn’t get my hints.”

Satoru groans, “What the hell? How long have you liked me?”

“I guess when you started bringing flowers to Megumi randomly just to piss him off.”

Satoru wants to rip his hair out. That was just a few weeks after you’ve started working with him, meaning you both have liked each other this whole time and he’s been suffering and feeling stupid just for nothing?

“God, Y/N,” he mutters to himself, “You really do know how to make a man go crazy, huh?”

That innocent smile on your face lets him know that as usual, you’re oblivious of everything. Satoru is right; he still can’t decide whether he wants to whack you in the head upside down. With a sigh, he ends up choosing the latter, nearly falling over his seat when you let out a surprised yelp at the feeling of his lips on yours.

It doesn’t take long before you grab onto his shirt and cling to dear life, laughter bubbling through your lips as you kiss. The sound is so precious he wants to bottle it up and keep it treasure for the rest of his life, but Satoru doesn’t rush anything.

With you and only with you is he ever capable of feeling like it’s just the two of you in a world filled with chaos and destruction.

[allexthakatt]

Dance of Death

Okay, so I've been (like everyone else) absolutely in LOVE with Mr. Eddie Munson! And I just needed to join the fanfic party.

Also yes I know Dance of Death came out in 2008 but for this fic let's just pretend it came out in 1983 with Peace of Mind, okay?

Anyone that knows me, knows that my all time favorite band is Iron Maiden. And a certain song popped in my head while thinking of storylines. I hope this is adequate, it's very late 😅

PAIRING: Eddie Munson x FEM! HISPANIC! Reader!

WARNINGS: A mention of racism, but nothing explicit. Jason, because he needs a warning 🙄. Bullies are ew.

CONTENT: ANGST, Seemingly unrequited love, Dustin being the very bestest friend ever! Ending in fluff!

---------------------------------

There was something about him. Something that made her lose all brain function to act normally. There isn't a thing he could do wrong in her eyes. Edward Munson. The name alone made her blush. How could she not? There's just something about him...

Could it be his messy long hair? His rock and roll style? His sense of humor? His love and care for his friends? The was he defends her so easily and so often? Who knows, actually.

She'd hadn't known him that long. The beginning of her second senior year (not meeting requirements to graduate the first time), his third. Right off the bat she wasnt accepted in most friend groups. Her coming from a whole other state, well away from the tiny secluded town that is Hawkins, Indiana. Not to mention she's one of the only Hispanic people in the high school in general. It also didn't help that she dressed all in black all the time. No one really cared enough to look her way, outright avoiding her to some extent. She's the new kid on the block, she understood that much. Why no one bothered to befriend her was a whole new experience.

Her pervious town was just outside Juarez, Mexico. Her whole neighborhood was so welcoming, never letting her feel left out of the festivities that went on in school. Here? In Hawkins? It felt like she was ghost. A ghost no one liked or wanted around. A certain Jason Carver particularly wasn't fond of her. Him and his petty group of friends would go out of their way to make her day worse. Shouting names, "accidentally" bumping into her in the hallways, going as far to spill his drink on her occasionally. She still keeps a change of clothes in her locker just in case.

She had been on her own those first two months. Hating every minute of it, wishing she could just go back home. It had been a particularly rough day with Jason when two freshmen had seen enough. Jason and his bully buddies had just pushed her to ground, kicking her backpack before laughing and walking away. She'd been humiliated, defeated, just wanting to cry in the bathroom. The two young boys bent down to help her pick up her things, introducing themselves as Dustin and Mike. The boys were her first friends. Sure, they were younger, but they'd been the only ones to show her kindness so far.

It had been a week after that they'd introduce her to the Hellfire Club. Jeff and Gareth welcomed her right away, interested in her culture and language. Lucas didn't mind her really, being a little preoccupied trying to get on the good side of the basketball team. Eddie, however, was absolutely smitten. She was everything he'd want in a woman. Someone he related to in many ways. She didn't live with her parents, her grandma taking her in after a falling out between the family. She loved rock, she played the drums, and was so. fucking. funny. Why hadn't he noticed her before?

Now, all those months later, they were all good friends. She finally felt like she found her people. Her little family in this swarm of assholes that flooded the school. Sure, Jason and his stupid gang still messed with her. But nothing could truly brings her down if Hellfire could pick her back up.

Senior prom was coming up, and although she didn't have a date, she was secretly hoping Eddie would ask her. The one person she'd put up with prom for. She'd do anything for him, honestly. There was a million reasons not to go to prom, but if Eddie was going? That was the one reason to go.

Her hope was dwindling, however. She'd noticed earlier that day a miss Chrissy Cunningham slip a note in Eddie's locker. That was out of the ordinary, considering she was a part of Jason's little clique. She was nice, Y/n guessed. Never joining her past boyfriend in the harassment toward her but never putting a stop to it either. Eddie had mentioned once or twice that he used to have a liking for Chrissy, but that was in middle school. Y/n was hoping the little note was for anything but prom.

Lunch came, and everyone was sitting at their claimed table. Everyone except for Eddie. Something Jeff caught on to first. "Where the hell is Eddie? Lunch is halfway done." To that everyone looked around. "Maybe he had a deal going on today." Jareth added in. "Doubt it. It's the middle of the school day, he wouldn't take the risk." Jeff and Gareth continued going back and forth, Y/n getting too lost in her head to keep up with what they were saying. He's never late for lunch. Where could he be?

"Speak of the devil. It's about damn time, man. We need to plan for tonight!" Dustin spotted him walking up to the table. There was something about him that was different. She'd never seen that smile before, a light flush on his face along with it. He shrugged off Dustins complaint. "We'll get to the planning in a minute, Henderson. I got big news right now!" Everyone at full attention, egging him to tell the big news.

"I'm going to prom!" Y/n's jaw dropped a little. Going to prom? With who? "Really? Who's the lucky lady, huh? Who?!" Mike was eager to find out who, just as she was. "Chrissy fucking Cunningham. She just asked me like 10 minutes ago!"

She was happy for him, really she was. But in that moment she couldn't smile. She couldn't congratulate him, applaud him, nothing. She felt... Broken. Falling, falling so fast; plummeting to the cold, hard ground and no one could catch her. The only person who noticed her fall is Dustin. He'd been the only one she told about her not-so-little crush on Eddie.

Dustin looked at her with a sympathized expression. Knowing full well she wasn't okay with this. She turned to him, too. Waving her hand with a notion that she's okay. Even though they both know she very much wasn't.

"Damn! That's awesome, man. Congratulations, didn't know you had it in you to pull something like that." The boys were proud of him. Of course they were, it's Chrissy fucking Cunningham. Little miss perfect of Hawkins High. The head cheerleader, straight A's, a slim body, nice personality. Everything that Y/n was not. Nothing made her self confidence shoot down faster than this.

No wonder he'd never ask her to prom. She didn't have anything he wanted. Chrissy did.

She kept her head down. Not having enough emotional energy to keep up a conversation. Just wanting to go home. Perhaps she'll just go home after lunch.

Wait. But then she'd have to just come back anyway for Hellfire tonight. A very important campaign to not only Eddie, but the rest of the boys too. Not to mention Dustin's lecture he'd give her about skipping it. She'd never hear the end of it.

The boys never stopped talking about Eddie "The Freak" Munson going to prom with Chrissy Cunningham. Not really having the heart to hear anymore of this, she stands up to throw her food away. She barely ate. "I'm gonna head to the library, kay? I have some catching up to do on Mr. Kellins paper." Without another word, she makes a bee line to the door.

"Mr. Kellins has a paper due?" Jeff not really getting the hint that she just wanted to leave. Dustin opted to follow her, knowing she'll probably want to vent. He looked up to her, like the big sister he never had. He was protective, odd as it is. To be protective of someone 4 years older than you. She wasn't blood, but he considered her family nonetheless.

Eddie noticed her change in behavior as well. He saw the rush she was in to leave, and Dustin's departure after her. Figuring Dustin would tell him later, he turns back to Jareth, who's bragging how he also got a prom date.

-

"Y/n? Are you okay?" She was in the back of the library, sitting on the floor with a random book in her hand. A book she probably grabbed just to have a reason to be here. "Honestly, Dust? Not really." Her legs are shaking slightly, trying her very hardest not to cry. What's her problem? Its not like she and Eddie are dating, he can go to prom with whoever the fuck he wants.

"I'm sorry, Y/n. He's an idiot for taking Chrissy and not you. A huge one." He tries his best to make her smile, but to no avail. "See that's the thing, Dust. He hasn't seen me. He probably just thinks of me as his sister or some shit. I'm nothing more than one of the boys. That's all I'll ever be." He could hear the heartache in her voice the tears she's kept in for so long. She'd let slip a couple months ago that all the boys she ever liked never liked her back. She called herself 'not traditionally pretty.' He assumed she meant like she wasn't like the pretty girls that got all the dates. Her skin was darker, her body was fuller, her hair was crazier. Boys never looked her way, it had been chipping away at her self esteem for years, Eddie was just the icing on the cake.

Dustin sits next to her, his back leaning on the bookshelf behind them. "Y/n, like I said. He's an idiot. He needs shit spelled out her him to even get it through his head. I know he likes you. Not like one of the guys, either. He really likes you. I know it." Y/n wants to believe him. But there was a voice in the back of her head. If that was true, why was he going with Chrissy and not her?

"Are you going to prom?" Dustin asks. She shakes her head. "What, and see them dancing all close together? Seeing them be like a couple? No fucking thank you. I'm gonna stay home. I wanna practice a new song." Figuring changing the subject to something she loved to do, he asks "What new song?" She perks up a bit and the question. "It's not really new, but Iron Maiden has a song called Dance of Death. I've been wanting to try it out for some time now. What better time than now?" They continue chatting for a bit more until the bell rings, signalling lunch was over and to head to class. Before they went their separate ways, Y/n game Dustin a hug. "Thank you. For checking up on me. I really appreciate it." Dustin hugs her back, "of course, Y/n. You're like a sister to me. I'm not just gonna leave you to cry in the library all alone." She laughs a bit at this, giving him one last squeeze. "I'll see you later, Dust."

-

It was right after school. Dustin, Mike, and Eddie were preparing for Hellfire. "So, you wanna tell me what was wrong with Y/n earlier?" Eddie started up the conversation. He'd tried to track her down after class, but to no avail.

"No." It was fast and a little bit venomous. Dustin was furious as him. How could he not be?! Eddie was tossing aside treasure to get with a nickel. He had no idea the pain he'd been causing Y/n. Even if he did, would he care?

Eddie looks up from the table. "What? Why not?" Mikes listening intently from the side, trying not to intervene. "Because it's her privacy. She's going through something right now and it's not my place to spill the beans. If you wanna know so bad maybe actually talk her." His attitude was showing through, and he didn't mean for it to come out so mean. He's just protective of his best friend.

"Hey, dude, I'm just asking. Kay? No need to get your feathers ruffled." Eddie tries to make the room fun again, cracking a joke at the end. He can't seem to shake this feeling, though. One he can't really pinpoint as to why. There's something wrong with Y/n? She always goes to him about her problems. Why can't she just come to him now?

"Hey guys!" Y/n was the first to arrive, slight red eyes with makeup piled on top of it. Enough for Eddie and Dustin to pick up on it, but not enough to say anything.

"Hey Y/n, we're just setting up now. You're pretty early today." Mike wants to break free of the tension that was currently in the room. "Yeah... I wanted to get here before Jason found me in the hallways again." She internally cringes at the remembrance of what happened last week when he saw her. He tripped her, calling her some racist name he could think of in the moment and then laughed in her face. She didn't think Jason was actually racist, but just wanting to hurt her in any way he can. Or maybe he was, she didn't really care enough to know.

"Carver can choke on a dick. He has no right to harass you the way he does." He's angry, of course he is. The way he's so quick to defend her makes that sparkle of hope shine once more. That is until she remembers that prom is in literally two weeks and he's going, but not with her.

"What can you do, huh? Let's finish setting up, kay?" She sets her bag down and avoids eye contact, ignoring the strange looks she gets from Eddie throughout the night.

-

That was probably the worst end to a campaign ever for her. She was thrown so off her game she died 15 minutes in. Spending the rest of her time just following along and giving advice when needed. God, she just wanted to go home.

Finally walking to her car, she was stopped by a concerned metalhead. "Y/n! Are you okay? You've been... Distant today." He desperately wanted to know what was wrong without pushing her too far.

"I'm fine Eddie. Just wanna go home, okay?" She tries to leave the situation as soon as possible, but Eddie refuses to leave it at that. "But Dustin said you're going through something. Whatever it is you know can talk to me too, right?" Y/n pauses, contemplating her answer. "I'm sure I can, Ed. Please just let go of my arm." He didn't even realize he had a hold on her, quickly letting go. "Just... Y/n don't leave me out of it, okay? I'm here for you, whatever way you need me."

Yeah but the way I need you you don't even want.

"I'll see you later, Ed." She gets in her car and drives off. Leaving Eddie in the parking lot alone.

-

The two weeks flew by like nothing. Eddie and Chrissy spending more time together alone, Y/n opting to take her lunches in the library, not wanting to see the boy she loved with someone much prettier than her. Dustin tries his best being there for her, spending every other day in the library with her.

"She actually changed my grade from a D- to an A! Can you believe that?" Dustin's blabbing about something Suzie did for him, she wasn't really paying attention. "Hey! Y/n! Are you even listening to me?" He claps his hands in front of her, snapping her out of her head.

"Sorry! Sorry! Just zoned out over here." She looked to the side, avoiding eye contact with the freshman. Knowing he'll know exactly what's on her mind. "Is it Eddie again?" Slowly she nodded, not wanting to cry. "Prom is in two days and all Eddie can talk about Chrissy. Chrissy this, Chrissy that. That's all I fucking hear about and I feel like I'm losing my mind. Imagine if Suzie kept talking about some guy that you thought was so much better than you. Wouldn't you be hurt too?"

Dustin nods slowly. Of course he would be. He really likes Suzie, and the the thought of her fawning over someone else made him sad.

"I don't think I'm gonna make it to Hellfire tonight, Dust. Not given what's going on. I think I just gotta get over him. How? I have no clue." The younger boy stands up, "What? But the ending of the cult of Vecna is tonight! What about the campaign?" She looks up at him sadly. "I promise you guys can do it without me. I just don't think I'd be much help tonight." Her voice drops, and it's then and there that Dustin realizes the full extent of her situation.

She's completely in love with him. And he's got his eyes on someone else.

He knew he had to do something. What that was? He didn't know. What he did know was that he hated seeing someone he cared about crying alone in the library. She was broken, lost. Not knowing where to go from here.

"sigh... Promise me you'll try your best to feel better okay?" She smiled softly at him, ruffling up his hair. "I promise, Dust." From that moment, he knew he couldn't keep quiet about this anymore.

-

Hellfire had just finished, not ending on a very high note, but hopeful nevertheless. The only ones left were Eddie and Dustin, deciding it was how or never.

"You're a idiot, Eddie." That caught him off guard. Sure, Dustin had been a little off today, but Eddie figured it was some freshman puberty thing. Not an Eddie thing.

"Excuse me?" Eddie stood up, approaching the younger boy with a confused look on his face. "You heard me. Do you even want to go to prom this year?" Prom? This whole thing was about prom?

"I mean not originally, no. But Chrissy really wants to go so.. Why the hell not, ya know?" Dustin was having none of it, his patience running thin. "You told me you don't even like Chrissy anymore. Why are you so damn hung up on her now of all times?" The room was getting tense.

"Hey. She asked me. I just said yes. It's not like I had bigger plans anyway." It wasn't a lie. He guesses he'd probably be in his room alone that night anyway. Unless Y/n would've wanted to do anything, in that case it was a whole new situation.

"What about Y/n? Do you even are about her anymore?" Dustin stood up from his chair. "What are you talking about? Of course I care about her!" The freshman scoffed, "You have a pretty funny way of showing it. You've been practically ignoring her since Chrissy came in the picture. I bet you barley even noticed she didn't come to hellfire today, huh?"

Of course Eddie noticed. It was the main reason team morale was down, the reason they'd all had retreated the fight. Their best girl and fighter wasn't there. "I did notice actually. I also noticed she hasn't been coming to lunch with us either. AND that no one seems to know the real reason except you. So why don't you just tell me what's really going on, Henderson. Enlighten me."

"She's in love with you, dumbass!"

Quiet. Neither of them breaking the deafening silence that engulfed the room. Dustin was mad, furious even, that Eddie had been so oblivious to the pain he'd been causing her.

"What?" Eddie couldn't believe it. Love? She actually loved him back? Why hadn't she said anything before? Why didn't he say anything before?

It all made sense. Chrissy. Prom. Y/n. That's why Y/n was so distant. He was going to prom, but with Chrissy. Not her.

"Y/n has been heartbroken the last two weeks! She can't even go to lunch because all you talk about is Chrissy. Chrissy Chrissy Chrissy. We get it, you wanna get in Chrissy's pants. But for gods sake, man, think! She sits in the library all alone because that's where she'd rather be than sitting in the cafeteria listening to how much she isn't what you want."

Dustin was about to explode. All the pent up anger was coming out. His brotherly protectiveness showing full scale, and Eddie deserved it all.

How could he be so blind? So stupid?

"Why... How come she never said anything? I-" His thoughts getting jumbled in his head. "She said she didn't wanna destroy the friendship. But Eddie, I'm gonna be honest, I think that's happening anyway." Eddie's heart shatters. The girl of his dreams, the person he'd do anything for. His very reason to keep coming to school! She's hurting, broken, thinking he doesn't care for her, love her.

And it's all his fault.

How could he fix this? It wasn't like he could just snap his fingers and change back time to before Chrissy asked him to prom. Oh how he wished he could do that.

"You're wrong about one thing, Henderson. She is what I want. Hell, she's all I want! Chrissy... I said yes because I didn't think Y/n would want to go, let alone with me." Dustin shakes his head. "Okay? You should've at least made sure before putting her through all of this shit. This is stuff you need to be telling her. Not me!"

"I know! I know! Shit, I don't know how I'm gonna fix this..." Eddie deflates, sitting down with his hands in his face. "I really fucked up, didn't I?" Dustin sits next to him, patting his friend on the shoulder. "Yeah, you did. But on the bright side, you know she likes you back now, right? Now figure out the next move."

-

The night of prom. Tonight. A night full of excitement and adventure for most. But for Y/n, it'll just be a regular Saturday. She'd skipped school the day prior, Opting for a quiet day in to collect herself. Mostly to avoid Eddie at all costs, not sure if she could really handle it.

Eddie had waited in the library for her to show up for lunch that day, hoping to explain everything, but she never showed. He instead got weird glances from the scattered students and librarian, not used to seeing Eddie in a place like a library.

He also waited after school, but gave up after noticing her car nowhere to be seen. Chrissy had found him instead, confused as to why he'd been standing sadly in the parking lot for ten minutes. It was there Eddie told her everything. Why lie? She'd deserved to know the truth too.

Chrissy had initially been disappointed, but came clean as well. Confessing she still had feelings for Jason, and was hoping to just make him jealous by showing up to prom with Eddie. They then had the mutual decision to just stay peers, nothing more. Something that took a huge chunk of weight off of Eddies chest.

Now prom was merely hours away, and Eddie was thinking of a plan. Best case scenario, he proclaims his love and sorries, she forgives him, and they get together and live happily ever after. Worst case scenario, anything other than that.

Y/n had been in the middle of the song when Eddie comes bursting in the room. Her grandma had taken quite a liking toward Eddie, Y/n guesses she's the one who let him in the house.

"Y/n! Please I need to talk to you." He was nervous, anxiety ridden. Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Y/n stands up from her drum set, walking past him to her water bottle. "I'm a little busy right now, Ed."

Eddie approaches her, hoping his confession would work. "Just... Hear me out, okay? Please?" She nods at him, praying this is just something that has to do with hellfire.

"I'm not going to prom with Chrissy." Her ears perked up at this. "Okay, so? You came all this way to tell me just that?" She didn't mean to keep up the attitude, but she didn't want to get her hopes up, either.

"I also know why you've been so distant. I know... Everything. I know you're feelings for me and I know how hurt you've been these past weeks. And Y/n I'm so so sorry. I wish I would've seen it sooner." He was staring in her eyes, searching for any kind of response.

"How do you know?" Tears were filling her eyes, she had no idea why. Raw emotion was building up without her consent.

He smiles at her softly, "A little birdie told me." She backs up, tossing her drumsticks on the chair. "Fucking Henderson, man. He can't keep a secret for shit." She'd confided in him, told him all her fears, insecurities, worries. All with the hopes of him keeping it between them. She felt a little hurt, but she can't help but feel a weight lift off her shoulders. Now everything was out in the open, and she could face rejection head on.

"Hey don't be mad him, I needed to know. Boy did he let me know, too. He'd probably have my head on a stick if I wasn't here right now." She laughs slightly. Dustin always acted like an older brother, despite her being 4 years older than he was. Never stopped their bond as family, though.

"Why are you here, Eddie? You couldn't tell me you didn't like me back on Monday?" He grabs her hands, holding them together, close to his chest. "That's the thing, Y/n. I do like you back. Just as much if not more than you like me." He's pleading with his eyes for her to listen, to understand. She shakes her head, looking anywhere but him.

"Eddie, that makes no sense. If that was true why were you going with her to begin with? Why wait 'til two hours before prom to confess your love for me?" He holds her tighter, "I should've told you all this a long time ago, and I'm so sorry, baby. I was scared. Hell, I still am! You're so beautiful it's intimidating. Why would someone as drop dead gorgeous as you like a freak like me?"

She laughs and looks down, tears falling freely now. "We're both freaks, dummy. I was planning on spending the whole night right here on the drums." He places a hand on her cheek, softly stroking it. "If you'd let me, could I join you?"

Their foreheads inch closer together, both of them being highly aware of the distance getting smaller. "What, you don't wanna go to prom?" Smaller. "Not if you're not there, babe." Smaller. "Then stay here with me." Smaller. "Gladly."

The distance is gone, her lips finally on his and it's. fucking. amazing. Nothing had been as sweet as her, or soft as him. It was like 2 pieces of a puzzle, fitting perfectly together like they were made for each other. Hands starting to roam, but before anything else could happen, breathing was a necessity.

Their foreheads leaning on each other once again. The tension now completely gone, all that's left is a room full of love and adoration. Both of them waiting so long to finally be here in the moment, neither of them wanting to let go just yet.

"So... Wanna show me what song you're playing?"

---------------------------------

Ahhhhh I'm so proud of this tbh I love Eddie so goddamn much I've never related to someone so much honestly.

Let me know what you think! Love you 😘